FAA investigating after planes nearly collide on melee landing at Austin airport

AUSTIN, Texas (KXAN) – The Federal Aviation Administration said it is investigating an incident in which a plane coming in to land nearly collided with another plane cleared for takeoff at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport on Saturday.

It happened when a FedEx cargo plane nearly landed on a runway where a Southwest flight was preparing to take off. A Animation created by Flightradar24 shows how close the planes were to crashing.

But the FedEx pilot halted the landing and “initiated a climb,” FAA officials said in a statement. The plane rose again just before landing.

“At the closest horizontal point, the planes were less than 1000 feet apart, but we don’t have data points at the same time to calculate an exact number,” writes Flightradar24.

The Southwest plane safely continued its departure and took off.

The National Transportation Safety Board initially tweeted about a “possible runway incursion and overfly” involving a Southwest Airlines plane and a FedEx cargo plane.

In an initial statement, the FAA said preliminary information revealed that FedEx Flight 1432 had been cleared to land on Runway 18-Links in AUS around 6:40 a.m. Saturday morning. This FedEx flight was cleared to land while the plane was still several miles from the airport.

Shortly before the expected landing, the controller cleared Southwest Flight 708 to depart from the same runway, according to the FAA.

“The FAA is investigating the incident,” agency officials said.

The FedEx aircraft was a Boeing 767 model freighter while the Southwest Airlines flight was a Boeing 737 model.

In a statement, a FedEx spokesman said the company’s cargo flight from Memphis, Tenn., landed safely in Austin after “encountering an event shortly before landing.” According to Flightradar 24, the plane was able to orbit and land 12 minutes later.

The FAA announced a further investigation last month after a plane nearly crossed a runway where another flight was preparing to take off at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport. “(Expletive)! Delta 1943, cancel clearance for takeoff! Delta 1943, cancel clearance for takeoff!” An air traffic controller could be heard on an audio recording.

The launch was refused and there was no collision.