2 planes narrowly avoided colliding on a Colorado runway after a pilot's quick-thinking maneuver

• Two planes nearly collided as one came into land and one tried to take off from the same runway.
• The JetBlue pilot took off steeply to avoid colliding, smashing the plane's tail into the runway.

Two planes narrowly avoided colliding on a runway in Colorado after the pilot of the JetBlue plane made a quick-thinking maneuver.

Unclear communication between the planes and the air-traffic-control center led to one plane taking off and one coming in to land on the same runway at around the same time on January 22, 2022, according to a National Transit Safety Board report published this week.

"I hope you don't hit us," the Beechcraft B300 King Air flight crew said as it descended to land at Yampa Valley Regional Airport in Hayden.

The King Air's flight crew mentioning "runway 28" and "runway 10" in communications exacerbated the confusion.

The pilot of the JetBlue Airbus A320 already on the runway increased the thrust during takeoff and turned the plane slightly to the right to avoid the incoming King Air plane.

As the plane took off steeply, its tail struck the runway, causing "substantial damage" to the aircraft, the report said.

A video shows when the JetBlue plane took off and smashed its tail into the ground.

The report said the JetBlue pilot made the move "due to his surprise about encountering head on landing traffic."

According to the Federal Aviation Authority, an alarming number of potentially dangerous close calls between aircraft are happening weekly.

An investigation by The New York Times found that a shortage of air-traffic controllers and a resulting exhausted workforce prone to making mistakes has exacerbated the risks.