Spirit Airlines Pilot would have warned of “ to descend from the iPad ” after being too close to the Air Force One

President Trump was recently in the air on the way to the United Kingdom for a meeting with the leaders of the nation, and while Air Force One flew over Long Island, the profession has become a little too close to another plane, a Spirline Airlines flight on the way to Boston.

The New York Times reports that the Spirit Flight received a severe warning from the air traffic control tower, which said the pilot with condescension to “descend from the iPad” and pay better attention to the aircraft path they were supposed to fly. It is not known if the pilot looked at an iPad at the time of the remark.

“Spirit 1300, turns 20 degrees,” initially told the flight to the flight team, notes the newspaper. However, the pilot seems to have missed the instructions, because the tower was forced to repeat his instructions several times. “Be careful, Spiritual 1300, turn 20 degrees to the right. Spirit 1300, turn to 20 degrees right now. Spirit Wings 1300, turn 20 degrees to the right immediately. ”

The air traffic control manager was then tested: “I’m sure you can see who it is”, they said, adding: “Keep an eye on him. He is white and blue.” He was then wrapped:

The tone of the voice of the air traffic controller has become more exasperated when he apparently tried to attract the attention of the distracted pilot. The audio has intensified while the controller said: “I was able to speak to you twice each time” and “get off the iPad”.

Quoting the flight data from Flightradar24, the Times notes that the Spirit Flight Plane 1300 was about 11 miles from the Air Force One when it finally started to “set off its flight trajectory” from the president’s plane. The newspaper notes that the two closest planes came to another was “eight miles from each other, laterally”, which does not seem much until you remember that commercial airline planes travel at speeds of 500-600 MPH.

When he was contacted to comment by Gizmodo, a representative of Spirit Airlines provided the following declaration:

Spirit Airlines Flight 1300 (FLL-BOS) followed the procedures and instructions for controlling air traffic (ATC) while he is on the way to Boston (BOS) and landed without incident in BOS. Security is always our absolute priority.

The FAA told Gizmodo that it was “aware of publications on social networks on Air Force One and a Spirit Airlines flight in Boston airspace on Tuesday, September 16”. The agency simply declared that “the required separation was maintained between the plane”.

In recent years, more a higher examination has targeted potential security problems with an impact on the commercial airline industry, as controversies involving plane manufacturers (like Boeing) have broken into the news cycle. In 2023, the New York Times said that “close collisions” between commercial aircraft occurred on an almost basis per week. One of the key problems with an impact on airline safety was the adequate endowment of air traffic control towers. A report published by the National Academies of Sciences stipulates that a small percentage of the Air Traffic Center of the FAA is in overexploitation, which leads to shortages of staff in other places.