NEWARK, New Jersey (WABC) — An Alaska Airlines 737 and a FedEx 777 cargo plane nearly collided as they tried to land on intersecting runways at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey, in accordance with radar data from FlightRadar24.
The incident occurred round 8:17 p.m. Tuesday because the Alaska flight arrived from Portland, Oregon, and the FedEx plane arrived from Memphis, Tennessee, in accordance with the data.
Air site visitors management informed the Alaska plane to go round seconds earlier than it touched down whereas the plane was simply 150 toes within the air, in accordance with air site visitors management audio and FlightRadar24 data. Meanwhile, the FedEx plane continued its touchdown on the intersecting runway.
Preliminary data from Flightradar24 shows the Alaska plane cleared the FedEx plane by simply 300 to 325 toes.
A management tower is seen at Newark Liberty International Airport in Newark, N.J., Monday, May 5, 2025.
AP Photo/Seth Wenig
The former vice chairman of the FAA mentioned Tuesday’s difficulty got here down to 2 runways that intersect.
“It is a challenge for a tower controller to try to get that timing perfect it doesn’t always work and that’s what happened in this case, so the tower controller waited and unfortunately in my opinion too long and they had to send the aircraft on a go-around,” Michael McCormick mentioned.
The incident comes two weeks after a Singapore Airlines plane clipped its wing with the tail of a parked Spirit Airlines plane on March 3.
In that case, the planes have been within the space of the airport the place air site visitors controllers don’t management the site visitors.
The FAA calls go-arounds a “routine safety procedure” and says it’s investigating
Alaska Airlines and FedEx each launched statements on Thursday afternoon.
“Following instructions from air traffic control, the flight crew of FedEx flight 721 landed safely without incident at Newark Liberty International Airport Tuesday. Please direct further questions to the FAA,” FedEx mentioned in a assertion.
“On Tuesday, March 17, Alaska Airlines Flight 294 was cleared to land at Newark Liberty International Airport. Air traffic control issued a go around to our aircraft, which our pilots are highly trained for. We’re aware the FAA and NTSB are investigating, and any further information would come from those agencies,” Alaska Airlines mentioned of their assertion.
Tuesday’s incident comes amid the partial authorities shutdown, which has precipitated important staffing shortages for the Transportation Security Administration and longer safety wait occasions at some airports
(ABC News contributed to this report.)
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