Pilot on Near Miss: 'Closest I've Ever Seen'

A Frontier jet's taxi out of Los Angeles International Airport turned tense when, according to its pilot, two trucks suddenly crossed its path. The FAA is investigating the near miss, which occurred at a service road intersection on an LAX taxiway shortly after 11pm Wednesday and forced the pilots to "slam on the brakes" to avoid a collision, the captain told air traffic controllers in recorded audio, per KNBC. The aircraft was moving at about 15mph, and no one among the 217 passengers and seven crew members was injured, though the pilot called it "real close, closest I've ever seen," per CBS News. Frontier praised the crew's response.

LAX hasn't said who was driving the trucks in the incident, which recalls March's fatal collision at New York's LaGuardia Airport, when a landing Air Canada jet struck an emergency vehicle on an active runway, following other near misses. Aviation expert Brian Sinclair tells CBS that this incident differs in that it occurred at low speed on a taxiway, though it offers a chance to tighten procedures before something worse happens. He notes parts of LAX's ground network can't be seen from the tower, creating blind spots. KNBC reports that when the pilot asked if air traffic controllers had seen the near miss, he was told they had not.