The incident occurred at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey on Tuesday (17) evening. Alaska Airlines Flight 294 was performing an aborted landing while a FedEx cargo plane attempted to land.
According to the FAA and data from the FlightRadar24 system, the passenger plane and cargo plane came within 90 meters of the collision.
Air traffic controllers ordered the Alaska flight to change course just seconds before it touched down, according to audio recordings obtained from the same system.
According to former FAA Vice President Michael McCormick, the incident may have occurred due to two intersecting runways.
“It’s a challenge for the tower controller to time it perfectly, and it doesn’t always work,” he explained. In his opinion, the controller waited too long and had to order the cargo plane to abort the landing.
The FAA and NTSB are investigating the near miss.
Source and images: Wikimedia Commons. This content was created with the help of AI and reviewed by the editorial team.
