Why some fear Burbank airport is an accident waiting to happen. 'Everybody has had concerns'

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The airspace over Los Angeles is among the most congested in the world, but the Hollywood Burbank Airport is uniquely situated, creating extremely tight parameters around the midsize airport.Burbank’s main runway is particularly short, and there is significant, nearby air traffic from the busy Van Nuys Airport — located just six miles away — leaving little room for error as pilots prepare to land at Burbank, according to a review of safety records and interviews with local and national aviators.The set-up of the two airports puts their planes in the same airspace, with overlapping flight patterns as they land and take off, though they are supposed to fly at different altitudes.

Adding to the challenge, the FAA itself has pointed out, is the fact that Van Nuys — home to many flying schools — has a “wide variation of pilot experience, and aircraft capability.”Since 2018, there have been at least 12 near collisions reported at Burbank, according to a Times review of reports in the Aviation Safety Reporting Database, which the website says “captures confidential reports, analyzes the resulting aviation safety data, and disseminates vital information to the aviation community.” The Times reviewed instances in which those safety reports mentioned an aircraft’s Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance System (TCAS) or a report of a near midair collision (NMAC).In several of the reports, pilots and aviation officials flying into Burbank detailed close encounters with or concerns about aircraft from Van Nuys.

After one such incident in 2018, a pilot wrote, “Quite frankly, this event scared the hell out of me.”In 2025, a pilot called for changes after a similar incident, mentioning Burbank’s short runway and other nearby obstacles, including Van Nuys flights, calling it a “demanding landing environment.” The unnamed pilot worried about the high potential for “...