Close Call: Plane Veers Toward Another Jet over Portland amid Storm

Alaska Airlines planes sit on the tarmac at Sea-Tac International Airport Friday evening,
AP Photo/Elaine Thompson
Amy Furr

An Alaska Airlines plane veered toward a SkyWest Airlines plane Monday afternoon near Portland International Airport in Oregon amid stormy weather, causing transportation workers to hold their breaths.

Federal aviation authorities have launched an investigation following the incident, Oregon Live reported Saturday.

The outlet said:

An Alaska Airlines flight from Orange County, California, aborted its attempted landing on an airport runway as a SkyWest plane lifted off from a parallel airstrip to the north.

In the moments after, the Alaska plane steered toward the path of the ascending SkyWest aircraft before veering away from that jetliner amid repeated instructions from an air traffic controller, flight records and audio reviewed by The Oregonian/OregonLive show.

Flight tracking video from VASAviation appears to show the incident as officials communicated with each other.

At one point, the airplane on the left veers towards the other one as they continue their journey. Moments later, the two planes appear to separate and create more distance between each other:

“Wow that could have turned out very differently good recovery by everyone, still you just can’t make mistakes like that at traffic control,” one social media user commented on the video.

Oregon Live reported that Alaska Airlines confirmed what happened and is reviewing the incident, while also stating the crew “followed cockpit indications and reacted immediately to increase separation from the other aircraft.”

Meanwhile, SkyWest told the outlet the safety of the flight was never compromised.

Now, officials with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) are investigating what happened, the Oregon Live article said. The outlet added:

 A review of publicly available flight data by The Oregonian/OregonLive found that the Alaska flight was traveling 214 mph and the SkyWest airliner 190 mph. The planes came within about 1,800 feet horizontally and 250 feet vertically, according to estimates by the newsroom.

In January, two planes nearly hit each other at the JFK airport and the FAA opened an investigation into what happened, Breitbart News reported.

Another airport incident happened in February when several people were hurt as a plane hit a shuttle bus at Los Angeles Airport, according to Breitbart News. The outlet noted it was the third time a similar incident happened in recent weeks.

Workers were towing the American Airlines plane from a gate to a parking area when it hit the vehicle.

COMMENTS

Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.