Air traffic control audio has revealed the tense moment two planes almost collided on Saturday at Boston Logan International Airport.
The near miss happened at around 11:34 a.m. ET and involved an American Airlines flight that had been cleared for takeoff minutes earlier and a rapidly approaching Delta Air Lines flight that was set to land, according to FlightRadar24.
Todd Curtis, a former safety engineer at Boeing, told The Associated Press that the two planes came within 300 feet of each other after evaluating data from FlightRadar24.
Archived audio of the communications between the pilots and the air traffic controllers was later posted to LiveATC.net.
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The pilot of the Delta flight, which was arriving from Dallas, told the tower that he was going to execute a go-around to avoid the American flight, which was headed to Charlotte, North Carolina.
A go-around is when a pilot decides to abort a landing and gain altitude. It is a safe and routine procedure that is performed at the discretion of the pilot or air traffic control, according to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
“Delta… uhh… 2351 going around because of American,” the Delta pilot was heard saying per LiveATC.net.
A controller then said moments later: “American 3161, where are you going?”
The American pilot responded: “You cleared us for takeoff 3161.”
After the Delta plane abandoned its initial landing, the pilot was told to “maintain 3,000” feet twice by controllers. The aircraft landed about 10 minutes later at 11:45 a.m. ET, according to FlightRadar 24.
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A Delta Air Lines spokesperson told Fox News Digital that while the plane was descending, the crew “received an advisory from onboard systems of potential traffic.”
The spokesperson said there were 129 passengers and six crew members aboard the Delta flight, all of whom got off the plane safely.
“Delta aircraft are equipped with technology to warn crews of potential conflicts with other aircraft and our pilots train extensively to respond,” the spokesperson said.
The FAA earlier confirmed to Fox News Digital that the Delta flight performed a go-around maneuver because the American passenger jet “was departing from an intersecting runway.”
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The near miss comes after multiple aviation accidents in the last several days.
Last week, a business jet crashed along a highway in Laredo, Texas, killing Capital Factory founder and Austin tech leader Joshua Baer.
And this weekend, a small, single-engine plane crashed in Bowie, Maryland, leaving three people dead, according to FOX 5 DC.
