April 10 (UPI) — The Federal Aviation Administration launched an investigation after a Frontier Airlines plane nearly collided with two trucks on the ground at Los Angeles International Airport this week.
The incident happened Wednesday night as the Frontier Airlines Airbus A321 was taking off en route to Atlanta. The plane was able to avoid a collision as it was traveling at a low speed. No one was injured.
Over air traffic control audio, the pilot of the plane can be heard saying “we just had two trucks cut us off.”
“We had to slam on the brakes to not hit them,” the pilot added.
“It happened so fast. I have to go check on the flight attendants in the back. It was real close, closest I’ve ever seen.”
There were 217 passengers and seven crew members on board the flight.
Frontier Airlines issued a statement to ABC News about the incident.
“We are aware of the incident. No injuries were reported to our passengers or crew. We thank our crew for their vigilance and professionalism,” the statement read.
Brian Sinclair, an instructor at the U.S. Naval Academy, told CBS News the air traffic controllers likely didn’t see the close call because it was in a blind spot.
“In this case, there are three specific locations at LAX that ground people in the tower cannot see the taxiways,” he said. “You could see that that would be a risk.”
The close call came weeks after an Air Canada jet struck a fire truck on the ground at LaGuardia Airport in New York City, killing both the pilot and co-pilot.
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