A commercial jet and a cargo plane came dangerously close to crashing into one another, with an air traffic control call revealing the last-minute instructions that averted disaster.
On Tuesday (17 March), an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 and a FedEx Boeing 777 were preparing to land on intersecting runways at Newark Liberty International Airport when they came 300 feet away from each other.
An air traffic controller can be heard telling the pilot of the Alaska Airlines plane to perform a “go around” - discontinue its landing and circle in for a new attempt - and maintain 2,000 feet in the air.
“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,” former FAA official Michael McCormick told ABC New York.