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Todd Curtis, a former safety engineer at Boeing, estimated the
distance between the two jetliners using Flightradar24, a
website that tracks flights. Curtis now coproduces a podcast
about flight safety issues.
“This is a significant incident,” Curtis said, adding that it
was particularly concerning because it involved two professional
airline crews.
He said federal aviation officials have been concerned about
such runway incursions for a while now and will scrutinize
Saturday’s close call.
Near-misses and runway incursions at U.S. airports will be the
subject of a hearing on Capitol Hill on Tuesday. The Senate
Commerce Subcommittee on Aviation, Space, and Innovation will
seek ways to strengthen safety across the national airspace
system.
The Delta flight from Dallas had to execute a go-around, or
aborted landing, to avoid the American plane departing from an
intersecting runway, according to the FAA and flight logs.
The crew of Delta flight 2351 coordinated with air traffic
control to perform the go-around, an airline spokesperson said.
The plane, which had 129 passengers and six crew members on
board, landed safely and deplaned normally, according to the
spokesperson.
Go-arounds are safe, routine procedures performed at the
discretion of the pilot or air traffic controllers, according to
the FAA.
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