A private plane reportedly carrying the Gonzaga University men’s basketball team nearly crossed a runway where another flight was taking off at the Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), prompting a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) investigation.
Air traffic controllers halted the private aircraft operated by Key Lime Air as a second aircraft was taking off from the runway around 4:40 p.m. on Friday, the FAA said in a statement. Video of the close call showed the private jet stop just as a Delta plane made liftoff.
“When the Embraer E135 jet proceeded to cross the hold bars, air traffic controllers told the pilots to stop. The jet never crossed the runway edge line,’ the FAA statement said.
The FAA is investigating the situation, the statement added.
Key Lime Air Flight 563 was carrying the Gonzaga men’s basketball team, CBS News and the Los Angeles Times reported. According to FlightAware, the Key Lime plane took off Dec. 27 from Spokane International at 2:10 p.m. PST and landed at LAX at 4:20 p.m. PST.
USA TODAY contacted Gonzaga University and LAX on Tuesday but has not received a response.
Air traffic controller: ‘Stop, stop, stop’
During a livestream video feed of the incident, a controller can be heard saying ‘stop, stop, stop’ to the Key Lime plane.
‘Wow! In the years I’ve been doing this, I’ve never heard (an) ATC controller tell a plane to ‘stop, stop, stop,” plane spotter Kevin Ray, who created the YouTube channel where the video was posted, can be heard saying.
On Dec. 28, a day after the incident, Gonzaga played UCLA and lost to the Bruins 65-62.
Delta says that it was unaware of the FAA’s investigation into the incident.
‘Delta flight 471 operated as normal, and we are not aware of any communication from the FAA regarding this flight,’ the airline said in a statement. ‘We are cooperating with aviation officials on their investigation.’
