The Federal Aviation Authority is investigating a near mid-air collision by two passenger airliners above New York City, it said on Friday.
A Delta Airlines Boeing 747, coming in to land at New York’s JFK airport, came within half a mile of a Shuttle America flight which was taking off from La Guardia, the FAA said in a statement.
The aircraft had “lost the required separation” that aeroplanes must have from one another in the air, the agency said. Both planes ultimately landed safely.
“The FAA is investigating an incident on June 13 at 2.40pm, in which Delta Airlines Boeing 747 arriving at JFK’s Runway 4L lost the required amount of separation with a Shuttle America Embraer E170 departing from LaGuardia’s Runway 13,” the FAA said.
“The two aircraft were turning away from each other at the point where they lost the required separation. Both aircraft landed safely.”
An FAA source said that in the airspace where the incident occurred the required separation for aircraft is 1,000ft above or below one another and 1,000ft from wingtip to wingtip.
The “nose to tail” required separation between aircraft is three miles, the source said.
The situation arose when the pilot of the Delta flight made a decision not to complete his landing on runway 4L at JFK. This is a standard procedure known as a “missed approach”.
NYC Aviation, a trusted aviation news website which reconstructed the near miss from flight radar data and control tower audio, said that normally in that situation the pilot would bank to the right and circle back for another attempt.
In this case the pilot of a flight just ahead of the Delta Boeing 747 had also aborted his landing. This meant the Delta flight could not also bank right, for fear of coming too close to the aircraft ahead.
Instead the Delta flight was ordered left by the JFK control tower, before then banking right.
This brought the Delta flight into the path of the Shuttle America Embraer E170, which had just taken off from La Guardia.
NYC Aviation told the story of the briefly dramatic exchange between the pilot of the Delta Boeing 747 and the JFK control tower.
JFK tower asks Delta 172, “Are you turning?” Delta 172 responds “Uh, yes sir, we’re almost at 040 now.” Immediately after, the JFK tower controller gets back on the radio and states “Delta 172 heavy, traffic 12 o’clock, 1400 feet, Embraer at 1600 feet,” with a tone of important in his voice. Delta 172 replies “Ok, we got them on the fish finder here,” referring to the traffic collision avoidance system.
“OK, he’s eastbound at 1800 feet climbing out of ZULAV.” At this moment, the two aircraft were at virtually the same altitude, headed for each other. However, all parties involved knew of the conflicting traffic, and both aircraft were actively turning to avoid each other. Delta turning to the right, Shuttle America to the left.
With the TCAS alarm sounding in the background, Delta 172 gets back on the radio and says “OK, we’re turning right to 060.” JFK tower then assigns a heading of 180, and Delta 172 is heading south to re-enter the approach pattern. Just like that, it’s over. Shuttle America 5981 continues on to Jacksonville, and Delta 172 circles back to JFK and lands safely.