According to a preliminary report released by the NTSB, two passenger planes ‘nearly collided’ mid-air last month near Newark Liberty Airport, New Jersey.
The incident happened on April 24 when a Boeing 737-800 aircraft, registered to United Airlines was about to land at the airport while an Embraer ERJ145 aircraft belonging to ExpressJet flight was taking off. At about 3pm, the distance between the two planes was recorded to be only 200 feet laterally, and 400 feet vertically.
The report revealed that “The local controller recognized that the spacing was insufficient and instructed the B737 to go around. He provided traffic advisories to both the B737 and the ERJ145 pilots and instructed the ERJ145 pilot to maintain visual separation from the B737. The ERJ145 pilot responded that he was going to keep the aircraft’s nose down. The B737 overflew the ERJ145 at the intersection of runways 29/4R”.
There were 47 passengers and 3 crew members aboard the ExpressJet flight while the United flight was flying with 155 passengers and 6 crew members on board.