An Etihad Airways Boeing 787-9 crossed a runway at Boston Logan without clearance on Thursday, October 15, 2026, prompting controllers to send an arriving Republic Airways jet around. The aircraft was operating as flight EY7 from Abu Dhabi.
The tower controller stopped the aircraft after the crossing and told the Republic flight to go around. The Republic jet had not yet landed.
An air traffic control audio reconstruction records the exchange and the taxi instructions. One Mile at a Time first publicized the incident on October 20, five days after it happened.
The crew later received a phone number from a ground controller concerning a possible pilot deviation. No official account had identified a cause by October 20.
A correct readback preceded the crossing of runway 4L
After landing, the crew was told to taxi via taxiways R and N and hold short of runway 4L. It read back, “R, N, hold short of 04L,” then was instructed to monitor the tower frequency handling arrivals.
The aircraft continued across runway 22R/4L, which was being used for landings, rather than stopping at the hold-short point. The audio reconstruction places the crossing shortly after a twin-engine Cessna on short final had cleared the runway.
The tower controller called, “Etihad 3MB Heavy, stop,” and directed the Republic aircraft to go around. Controllers then cleared the 787 to continue across 4L on taxiway N and hold short of runway 15L. It crossed that runway after receiving clearance, switched to ground control and was later cleared across runway 15R.
As the aircraft approached the ramp, the ground controller asked the crew to copy a phone number about a possible deviation. The event did not escalate into a reported collision.
The Republic jet was still airborne when controllers ordered the go-around
The aircraft sent around was Republic Airways flight 5739, using the callsign “Brickyard 5739.” It was operating for Delta Connection as DL5739 from New York LaGuardia. The aircraft was an Embraer E175 registered N224JQ.
The audio reconstruction estimated that the jet was about 200 feet above the ground when it began the go-around. Departure control told its crew to expect vectors for another visual approach to runway 4L.
The Republic flight landed on its second approach at 3:09 p.m., 14 minutes ahead of schedule. It remained on schedule for the rest of Thursday and most of Friday.
The audio records the sequence, but not why the aircraft crossed
The Federal Aviation Administration’s air traffic control handbook, Order JO 7110.65, calls for a separate crossing clearance for each runway on a taxi route. It also directs controllers to request a readback when a pilot does not repeat a runway hold-short instruction. Here, the crew read the instruction back correctly, but the reason it continued across the runway has not been made public.
A theory in the blog account suggests the crew may have been on the 22R side and failed to recognize the runway as one it had been told to avoid. That is conjecture, not an established cause. The Aviation Hub also noted that a long-haul flight from Abu Dhabi to Boston would typically carry four pilots; the reconstruction does not establish what each crew member saw or did.
The FAA classifies runway incursions as operational incidents caused by controllers, pilot deviations, or vehicle and pedestrian deviations. Its severity scale runs from Category D, with no immediate safety consequences, to Category A, when a collision was narrowly avoided. No severity rating for the Boston event had been made public.
As of October 20, the FAA’s public log of incident statements had no entry about the event. The research account also recorded no statement from Etihad or Republic Airways. The formal outcome depends on the investigation following the notification to the crew.
The return flight arrived seven minutes behind schedule
FlightAware’s record shows EY7 touched down at 2:55 p.m. local time, 15 minutes behind schedule. The flight came from Abu Dhabi International Airport, identified by the code AUH.
Boston Logan has six runways. The aircraft’s taxi after landing crossed three of them: 4L, 15L and 15R. The Republic jet’s second approach ended at 3:09 p.m.; the reconstruction recorded no further schedule disruption for that aircraft through most of the following day.
Etihad’s return flight, EY8, left Boston at 5:28 p.m. Thursday, compared with its scheduled departure at 4:35 p.m. It reached Abu Dhabi at 1:07 p.m. local time Friday, seven minutes late.
The audio reconstruction was posted on October 19 by the YouTube channel You Can See ATC, pairing Boston tower and ground recordings archived by LiveATC.net with flight-tracking data. The FAA log had no entry as of the following day.
