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Two airborne flights only 800m from colliding at JFK

Two airborne planes — one landing and the other taking off — came within 800m of colliding at John F. Kennedy International Airport on Friday in the second such incident at the airport in a week, the Federal Aviation Administration said.

The FAA moved quickly to change takeoff and landing procedures at JFK on perpendicular runways — the kind of runways involved in both incidents.

FAA spokeswoman Laura Brown said Delta Flight 123 was arriving at the airport on Friday when the pilot decided to abort his landing and execute a “go-around” — a routine procedure often used during heavy congestion. That caused the Delta flight to intersect with the flight path of Comair Flight 1520, a regional jet that was taking off on another runway.

The FAA ordered new procedures on Friday afternoon to change the way takeoffs and landings on perpendicular runways are sequenced, Brown said in an interview.

The new procedures are designed to ensure “that aircraft of one runway clear out of the path of the other runway before the second flight comes down on the other runway,” Brown said. “We’ve had two events recently and I think we want to make sure the appropriate safety margins are in place.”

Last Saturday, a Cayman Airways flight was coming into JFK when the pilot decided to abort the landing and fly around the airport again as a LAN Chile jet was taking off. Their flight paths crossed, bringing the planes within about 61m of each other vertically and 800m horizontally. The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating that incident.

On Friday, the Delta jet, a Boeing 757, and the Comair plane, a Bombardier CRJ9, came within 183m of each other vertically and 800m horizontally, the FAA said.

The agency said it was not classifying either incident as a “near collision” because there was no violation of standards for how far apart planes can fly, Brown said.

Delta spokeswoman Gina Laughlin initially said the incident took place a week ago, on July 4. However, Laughlin later confirmed that the FAA was correct and that the incident took place on Friday at 1:20pm.

Comair is a subsidiary of Delta. Laughlin said she didn’t know how many people were aboard the Delta flight, which came from Shannon, Ireland, but the plane seats 170 passengers.
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