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 “unstable” landings.
Now, those safety concerns at Hollywood Burbank Airport have taken center stage after one of America’s top aviation investigators highlighted those worries last week.
“Commercial airlines have called me to say the next midair [collision] is going to be at Burbank and nobody is paying attention to us,” National Transportation Safety Board Chair Jennifer Homendy said at a meeting marking the one-year anniversary of the midair collision between a jetliner and military helicopter that killed 67 people in Washington, D.C.
The Federal Aviation Administration says things have improved at Burbank, pointing to a recent change that adjusted the altitude for Van Nuys aircraft, increasing clearance between descending Burbank flights and the smaller planes at Van Nuys.
Yet that has not eased worries in some corners.
Trent Sanders, who has flown privately for decades from Whiteman Airport in Pacoima, another noncommercial airport about 6 miles from Burbank and Van Nuys, said he’s very aware of the heightened risk between Burbank and Van Nuys.
Though the flight path out of Whiteman doesn’t directly cross with either Van Nuys or Burbank, “everybody has had concerns,” Sanders said. “I’m not going to go over that area. … We go around.”
As planes land on Burbank’s main runway, planes are arriving and others are taking off at Van Nuys, including pilots who are training, said Rob Newman, a pilot and the department chair of Glendale Community College’s Aviation Department.
“It’s all actually taking place below the jets that are on their way to Burbank,” he said.
Burbank is a Class C airport, serving many commercial, passenger flights, while Van Nuys is a slightly smaller, Class D airport, with private or government-owned jets and helicopters making noncommercial flights. As Burbank-bound flights descend onto the airport’s main runway, they “overfly aircraft in the [Van Nuys Airport] traffic pattern,” according to a recent FAA document about the area.
The FAA has acknowledged that Burbank-bound flights get these TCAS safety alerts warning of another aircraft flying too close — typically from Van Nuys — with some relative frequency.
Such incidents typically require a quick re-route, or an “aborted landing attempt,” in which pilots quickly return to a higher altitude before attempting to land again at Burbank, according to the FAA. The agency last year tested out lowering the altitude for Van Nuys flights, leading to a permanent increase in the clearance between Burbank and Van Nuys aircraft by 200 feet, in an effort to reduce those alerts.
That means that traffic patterns around Van Nuys now fly at least 800 feet below the planes landing at Burbank, according to FAA documents. It was previously a 600-foot gap.
A spokesperson for the FAA did not respond to questions from The Times about whether any other changes are being considered to improve safety at Burbank. A representative at Hollywood Burbank Airport referred all questions to the FAA.
Sanders said he worries the change of 200 feet isn’t drastic enough to foster significant safety improvements.
“That’s not much at all,” Sanders said. “You can drift, you’re looking out the window, you’re looking at your instruments, … you drift down a little or drift up.”
He would like to see a solution that changes the positioning of Burbank’s main runway for landings, switching from the east-west pattern that crosses over Van Nuys’ airspace. He said Burbank’s airport already has a second runway that would allow for a more northern route.
“It would avoid the conflict with the other planes,” Sanders said.
But in recent updates from the FAA, officials explained that Burbank’s east-west runway remains the best option because it allows for a “straight-in instrument approach,” which provides pilots lateral and vertical guidance. That technology cannot be utilized at the airport’s northern facing runway, “due to terrain, obstacles such as buildings and radio towers, and air traffic traveling to and from other airports,” the FAA said.
The east-west runway also is the best during calm wind conditions, the agency said.
Josh Saltsman, owner of Hot Shot Aviation, which offers flying classes and rentals out of Van Nuys, said he is now concerned the FAA’s recent change decreases the clearance between smaller aircraft — like the ones he flies — and helicopters, which typically fly at even lower altitudes.
“They’re just putting the small airplanes closer to helicopters, … pushing the problem from one place to another,” Saltsman said. “I think that is a larger threat than anything we have coming into Burbank.”
He said he found the recent concern around the safety at Burbank airport “a little bit sensationalized.”
He’s never personally experienced any close calls with a jet landing at Burbank, but he is very aware of the tight parameters and teaches his flight students how to safely navigate the overlapping Burbank flights.
But that’s not to say safety isn’t always top of mind.
“It’s a constant thought.” Saltsman said. “As long as you’re able to get some good guidance and figure out how the area works and what’s around you, you are able to build a safe plan and navigate appropriately. … Safety is not negotiable.”
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