The incident took place at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey on Tuesday evening (17). Alaska Airlines Flight 294 was making an aborted landing while a FedEx cargo plane attempted to land.
According to the FAA and data from FlightRadar24, the passenger plane and cargo plane were only 90 meters from colliding.
Air traffic controllers instructed the Alaska plane to change course seconds before it touched down, according to audio recordings obtained from the same system.
According to former vice president of the FAA, Michael McCormick, the incident may have occurred due to two intersecting runways.
“It is a challenge for the air traffic controller in the tower to hit the timing perfectly, and it does not always succeed,” he explained. In his judgment, the air traffic controller waited too long and had to ask the cargo plane to abort the landing.
The FAA and NTSB are investigating the near miss.
Source and images: Wikimedia Commons. This content is created with the help of AI and reviewed by the editors.
