A Southwest Airlines flight is under investigation after it nearly hit LaGuardia Airport’s air traffic control tower on March 23 during inclement weather.
Officials with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) are working to determine what happened when Southwest Airlines flight 147, which was journeying from Nashville to New York City, veered off course as it tried to land that afternoon, the New York Post reported on Friday.
At the time, the weather caused extremely low visibility, per NBC New York.
When the pilots received the green light a second time to land, an air traffic controller told the pilots, “Go around! Go around! Fly runway heading climb and maintain 2,000! Climb and maintain 2,000! Two thousand!”:
The plane had dropped so low that the controllers saw the bottom of the aircraft as it flew past them, according to the NBC report. Per the Post, the controller said the plane failed to line up with the runway.
After being diverted to Baltimore, the flight landed safely.
An airline spokesperson said leaders are reviewing what happened as part of its safety systems.
“The National Transportation Safety Board said it was also looking into the incident but did not plan to issue any immediate reports,” the Post article noted.
On Thursday, NBC DFW reported information pertaining to similar instances:
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) launched an investigation into close calls at U.S. airports last fall, noting a surge in such incidents — six close calls in 2023 alone. The FAA identified 23 of the most serious types of close calls in the last fiscal year, which ended Oct. 1, up from 16 the year before and 11 a decade ago.
Independent estimates suggest those figures grossly understate such incidents.
In January 2023, two planes nearly collided at JFK airport, and officials opened an investigation to determine what happened, according to Breitbart News.
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