The Federal Aviation Administration is once again looking into a close call at a major U.S. airport, after two passenger jets narrowly avoided a mid-air collision in Phoenix over the weekend.
United Airlines Flight 1724 from San Francisco and Delta Air Lines Flight 1070 from Detroit came dangerously close to each other as both were trying to land at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport on Saturday.
At their closest point, the two commercial jets, a Boeing 737 and Airbus A330, flew within about 1,200 feet of each other laterally and 875 feet vertically, according to data from Flightradar24.
As the Delta widebody jet was nearing a runway, an audible warning of "descend, descend" could be heard from the flight deck as the crew was communicating with an air traffic controller. The pilots of the United jet also said they'd received a cockpit alert to take evasive action. Both planes aborted their approaches, circled the airport and then landed without incident, in a recording archived on LiveATC.net.
"Both flight crews received onboard alerts that the other aircraft was nearby," according to a statement from the FAA, and both were able to land safely after receiving corrective instructions from air traffic controllers.
The incident is the latest in a troubling series of close calls in the air and on runways in recent years, raising questions about the health of the U.S. aviation system.
The FAA says it is investigating.
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