Two planes nearly collide mid-air due to ‘loss of required separation’ while attempting to land
Two planes almost collided mid-air after being just 1,200 feet apart, too close for the required five-mile horizontal distance, while attempting to land at an airport in Arizona, US.
According to a BBC report, preliminary flight data showed that a United Airlines flight from San Francisco was below a quarter mile from a Delta flight from Detroit as they tried to land at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport on Jan. 11 at around 11:00 a.m. The planes were carrying 245 passengers and 123 passengers, respectively.
Local media outlet KTVK, citing data from FlightRadar24, reported that they had only 425 feet vertical distance and 1,200 feet horizontal distance—far from the required distance of five miles horizontally.
Justin Giddens, a self-described “aviation nerd,” was able to witness the moment while going on a walk with his wife and son.
“I know the way the planes are supposed to be in the pattern on approach to Sky Harbor. So the big and the small plane kind of make it look like they were a lot further apart, [but] it was very, very close,” Giddens told KTVK. “It was immediate panic mode.”
United Airlines told PEOPLE Magazine that their pilots acted immediately after receiving an alert to change the altitude. For its part, Delta assured that its flight crews “extensively train to handle uncommon scenarios such as this.”
They added that both planes were able to land safely.
Crews have been given corrective instructions by the air traffic control at the airport following the incident, according to a statement sent by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to PEOPLE Magazine.
The FAA said it's now investigating how the two commercial flights experienced “a loss of required separation” and how they got so close to each other mid-air.
