Potentially the worst air disaster in history was narrowly avoided Saturday at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, when two planes nearly collided on the runway.
In a horrifying video shared online, a Southwest Airlines flight can be seen taxiing on the runway, getting ready to take off, as a FedEx cargo flight nearly lands directly on top of the passenger jet. The two enormous airliners were less than 1,000 feet away from each other at one point, as the Southwest flight ramped up for takeoff and the FedEx flight came in to land, according to a Flightradar24 spokesman cited by The Wall Street Journal.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is investigating the incident as “a possible runway incursion and overflight,” according to 6ABC. “Shortly before the FedEx aircraft was due to land, the controller cleared Southwest Flight 708 to depart from the same runway,” the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said, the outlet reported.
The NTSB is investigating an incident involving a Southwest 737 and FedEx 767 that occurred today in Austin. Initial ADS-B data show the landing 767 overflying the departing 737. We are processing granular data now. https://t.co/twHCydm5ixhttps://t.co/wZ3Z0xKJem pic.twitter.com/nkKVjshXmf
— Flightradar24 (@flightradar24) February 5, 2023
Thankfully, the FedEx flight was able to discontinue its landing procedure and initiate a “climb-out” from the runway, allowing the Southwest flight to depart successfully, 6ABC continued. (RELATED: Did Flight Systems Go Down Because Of Solar Storms? Well …)
The near-collision is the latest in a series of issues for the FAA and flights across the U.S. All domestic air travel was stopped for several hours in early January after a major issue occurred with the organization’s Notice to Air Missions systems.