The incident took place at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey on Tuesday evening (17). Alaska Airlines flight 294 made 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 away from colliding.
Air traffic controllers instructed the Alaskan plane to change course just seconds before it was about to touch 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’s a challenge for the tower controller to hit the timing perfectly, and it doesn’t always work,” he explained. In his opinion, the 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 has been created with the help of KI and reviewed by the editors.
