Two planes came within less than half a mile of each other in stormy skies over Portland International Airport last week, prompting a federal investigation.
The close call came when an Alaska Airlines flight departing from Southern California attempted to land on the runway next to where a SkyWest plane had taken off on Monday around 4:15 p.m., according to the Oregonian.
The Alaska plane diverted and aborted its landing amid increasingly urgent instructions from air traffic controllers, according to publicly available footage and visual simulations released by VASAviation.
The planes are about 1,800 feet apart horizontally and have a space of 250 feet between them vertically, the newspaper estimated.
The near-air collision occurred when the planes were less than 500 feet from each other, according to the Federal Aviation Administration, which is investigating.
Alaska Airlines Flight 1299 then began to turn toward SkyWest Airlines Flight 3978 after the pilot appeared confused by his instructions from air traffic controllers and made a right turn instead of keeping the plane straight. VASAviation / Youtube
Visibility at the time of the incident was less than a mile as the area was reportedly flooded with heavy rain and fog.
High winds initially prevented Alaska Flight 1299 from landing, and the plane dropped to an altitude of 100 feet before ascending for a “go-around,” or other attempt, according to the outlet.
At the same time, SkyWest Airlines flight 3978 took off on a parallel runway.
A near-air collision occurs when planes are less than 500 feet from each other, according to the FAA.Getty Images
The Alaska flight was directed by air traffic controllers to maintain a “runway yard” course while the SkyWest plane was told to make a right turn. Instead, the apparently confused pilot of flight 1299 repeated the instructions to the other aircraft and began heading to the right, while flight 3978 continued straight ahead.
For the next 40 seconds or so, the plane seemed headed for a possible collision course and the air traffic controller seemed to falter as he gave increasingly frantic directions, at one point misidentifying the Alaska flight as “1298.”
The Alaska flight was reportedly diverted to an airport 150 miles away and was unable to land in Portland until 11:45 p.m.
Both airlines issued statements to the press downplaying the incident.
“The crew of Flight 1299 followed cockpit instructions and acted immediately to increase separation from the other aircraft,” an Alaska spokesperson said. “The aircraft maintained a safe amount of lateral separation throughout the entire event.”
“At no time was the safety of the flight compromised,” SkyWest reportedly said.
It is not clear how many people were on the two planes.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
