A pilot incapacitated, a crash landing and a close call. What we know about the latest aviation incidents

By Alexandra Skores, CNN

Washington (CNN) — A pilot suffering a medical emergency, a plane forced down in Alaska and passenger jets nearly colliding in Boston are the latest aviation incidents under investigation as the busy summer air travel season gets underway.

While each incident is vastly different, all could be frightening for passengers planning to fly as America rings in its 250th anniversary.

The Transportation Security Administration expects to screen nearly 18.7 million travelers at US airport security checkpoints over the busy Fourth of July weekend, between June 30 and July 6.

The latest incidents also come just weeks after four plane crashes happened in four days in the US. None of the crashes were related, but 21 people were killed.

Passengers should feel safe on planes; however, these incidents happen all over the world, according to Ed Pierson, executive director of the Foundation for Aviation Safety.

“What you really need to do is you need to investigate these and you need to go, ‘OK, what happened, how can we fix it, (and) let’s not make that mistake again,’” he said.

Here’s what we know about what is happening in the skies.

Air Canada flight makes emergency landing after pilot is incapacitated

The pilot of Air Canada Flight 7664, traveling to Halifax, Nova Scotia, from Newark Liberty International Airport, had a medical emergency in the cockpit.

“The moment the plane swerved, I knew something was wrong because it was not turbulence,” passenger Rodney McDonald told ABC. “One of the flight attendants entered the cockpit frantically and a few moments later, he was dragging one of the pilots out of the cockpit.”

The flight, operated by PAL Airlines, diverted to Boston Logan International Airport. The first officer took over flying, made an emergency landing and stopped just off the runway.

“During the flight, the captain experienced a medical issue and was removed from the flight deck as per safety protocols,” the airline said in a statement. “Pilots are trained to fly aircraft and land safely without the assistance of a second pilot.”

McDonald told ABC it was clear the captain “was not in control of his faculties” and he, in consultation with a nurse onboard, restrained him.

“(We) worked to get him under control. It was a fairly strenuous 40 minutes of keeping him down and using as many seatbelts as we could to restrain his legs, arms and chest,” McDonald said.

Video from CNN affiliate WCVB showed emergency crews surrounding the plane and helping the pilot down the stairs to a waiting ambulance. He was then taken to a Boston hospital.

There were 61 passengers on the plane, according to Air Canada which said it was working to help everyone “complete their journeys as soon as possible.”

Plane with 10 people onboard crash lands in Alaska

A passenger on a small commercial airplane captured dramatic video of the moment the Cessna 208 Caravan made an emergency crash landing in rural Alaska on Monday.

The Wright Air Service commuter flight connected the small Alaska towns of Coldfoot and Anaktuvuk Pass, near Gates of the Arctic National Park.

The pilot reported engine problems shortly after takeoff, which led to the forced landing, according to the National Transportation Safety Board.

Video taken by passenger Brett Fillipi showed the single engine propeller plane bouncing to a stop in a mountain meadow with its nose slamming into the ground.

“Something went wrong with the plane and we had to do an emergency landing out here in the bush,” Fillipi said as he and the other passengers applauded the pilot.

Ten people were on board the 7-year-old plane. It is unclear whether anyone was injured, but video shows all of the passengers walking around after exiting the aircraft.

The plane was significantly damaged and the passengers were rescued by helicopter.

Wright Air carries about 40,000 passengers a year on scheduled flights, according to its website, including trips to small towns like Anaktuvuk Pass, which depend on air travel to connect to the outside world.

“It is our intention to maintain and operate with the highest level of safety standards while providing the best customer care possible,” the website states.

The Federal Aviation Administration and NTSB are investigating what caused the crash.

Close call between two passenger jets in Boston

A jet landing in Boston nearly collided with another plane taking off on an intersecting runway, prompting FAA and NTSB investigations.

The pilots of Delta Air Lines Flight 2351 aborted their approach for landing at Boston Logan International Airport around 11:30 a.m. Saturday when they saw American Airlines Flight 3161 accelerating for takeoff on a perpendicular runway.

The Delta pilots circled the airport, in a procedure called a go-around, before landing safely on their second attempt. The planes were only several hundred feet apart at their closest point.

A go-around is a safety maneuver pilots can use when there is a problem with an approach. It can be as simple as reacting to a change in the wind but it is also used for more serious “runway incursions,” where planes, vehicles or people are incorrectly on a runway.

Despite recent high-profile runway incursions, including the fatal collision of an Air Canada flight landing at New York’s La Guardia Airport with a fire truck crossing the runway, the FAA says the number has actually declined.

In 2023, the FAA recorded 21 serious runway incursions, but so far in 2026, the FAA has reported only four. Sometimes, stopping a close call from becoming a disaster comes down to a single person seeing it and taking action.

“These close calls remind us of the tight margins for the calculations made by pilots and air traffic controllers,” said Sen. Tammy Duckworth, the ranking member of the aviation subcommittee, at a hearing this week. “In far too many of these incidents, the difference between a close call and a deadly disaster has come down to a single highly trained and professional individual taking emergency action.”

Runway incursions are just one type of close call, and Chris Sununu, president and CEO of airline lobbying group Airlines for America, testified there are many more the public never hears about.

“There are many more, thousands more near misses than are probably out there in the public, that, you know, get the headlines,” he testified. “There are hundreds of them every single day.”

CNN’s Aaron Cooper, Pete Muntean, and Danya Gainor contributed to this report.

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