The incident happened at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey on Tuesday (17) evening. Alaska Airlines Flight 294 made an aborted landing while a FedEx cargo plane was attempting to land.
According to the FAA and FlightRadar24, the airliner and cargo plane were just 90 meters from colliding.
Air traffic controllers ordered the Alaska flight to change its route a few seconds before landing, audio recordings from the same system show.
According to former FAA Vice President Michael McCormick, the cause of the incident may have been the two intersecting runways.
“It’s a challenge for the tower controller to time this perfectly, and it’s not always possible,” he explained. In his opinion, the controller waited too long and eventually had to order the cargo plane to make an aborted landing.
The FAA and NTSB are investigating the near miss.
Source and images: Wikimedia Commons. This content is generated with the help of artificial intelligence and verified by the editors.
