Officials Investigating After Planes Nearly Collide on JFK Runway

Two planes narrowly missed crashing into each other at the JFK airport on Friday and officials are working to determine what happened.

The Federal Aviation Administration has opened an investigation into the matter, CNBC reported Sunday:

The FAA said a Boeing 737 operated by Delta Air Lines stopped its takeoff around 8:45 p.m. when air traffic controllers noticed another American Airlines aircraft crossing the runway. The Delta flight “stopped its takeoff roll approximately 1,000 feet” from the point where the American Airlines Boeing 777 had crossed, according to the FAA’s preliminary analysis.

Audio from air traffic control recorded someone saying, “Delta 1943 cancel takeoff plans. Delta 1943 cancel takeoff plans,” according to CBS New York.

Moments later, another person said, “Alright then… oof. Delta 1943. Yeah, Delta 1943 you able to taxi or you need a couple of minutes to run checks?”

The Delta plane was carrying 145 passengers and six crew members. The craft was embarking on its journey to the Dominican Republic.

Due to the incident, the flight was delayed and passengers were asked to deplane. However, the plane eventually took off Saturday morning.

“The safety of our customers and crew is always Delta’s number one priority,” a Delta Air Lines representative said.

“Delta will work with and assist aviation authorities on a full review of flight 1943 on Jan. 13 regarding a successful aborted takeoff procedure at New York-JFK. We apologize to our customers for the inconvenience and delay of their travels,” the representative added.

Meanwhile, the FAA said air traffic operations were getting back to normal once a mass system failure grounded commercial U.S. flights on Wednesday, Breitbart News reported.

“In a fifth update Wednesday morning, the FAA announced normal air traffic operations are ‘resuming gradually across the U.S. following an overnight outage to the Notice to Air Missions system that provides safety info to flight crews,'” the outlet stated.

The news came after the holiday chaos that affected American airports and airlines following days of cancellations.

According to the FAA’s website, the agency provides “air traffic services for the world’s largest and busiest airspace.”