A commercial airliner and a cargo plane came perilously close to colliding on intersecting runways at Newark Liberty International Airport.
The incident, which occurred on Tuesday night, is now under review by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
The close call involved an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737, which flew over a FedEx Boeing 777 at the busy New York City area airport.
According to the FAA, an air traffic controller instructed Alaska Airlines Flight 294, arriving from Portland, Oregon, to perform a “go around” – meaning to discontinue its landing approach and circle for a new attempt.
This instruction was issued because FedEx Flight 721, originating from Memphis, Tennessee, had already been cleared for a final approach to an intersecting runway.
Alaska Airlines said that flight was cleared to land at Newark.
Air traffic control “issued a go around to our aircraft, which our pilots are highly trained for,” the airline said in a statement.
FedEx also released a statement, saying that its flight crew “followed instructions from air traffic control and landed safely.”
