Delta jet in near-collision at New York's JFK airport

A Delta Air Lines jet came within a half-mile of a Comair regional jet Friday at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport, authorities said.

The planes were a half-mile horizontally separated and 600 feet vertically separated, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

FAA spokeswoman Laura Brown said the planes were under air traffic control the entire time, and said it was not an operational error or runway incursion.

Atlanta-based Delta is the parent company of subsidiary Comair, which is also one of its regional carriers.

Delta Flight 123, a Boeing 757, was coming into New York from Shannon, Ireland, and landing at JFK when the incident occurred at approximately 1:30 p.m., officials said. The Delta jet executed a "go-around," aborting its landing for another approach.

Delta spokeswoman Gina Laughlin said the pilot followed all procedures to execute the missed approach, "and in doing so, came into the flight path of a Comair flight that was taking off."

The Delta flight came back around and landed without incident, Laughlin said.

Barrett Byrnes, a facility representative for the National Air Traffic Controllers Association New York-JFK Tower, said the FAA will change procedures for planes operating on those perpendicular runways to prevent such incidents from happening again.

The change is "going to enhance safety, there's no doubt about it," Byrnes said.

Laughlin said Delta "will work with the FAA as it warrants."

Friday's events followed a similar incident at JFK on July 5, when a Cayman Airways plane and a Linea Aerea Nacional de Chile aircraft came in close proximity to each other, according to the National Transportation Safety Board.

The Cayman Airways flight was executing a missed approach at about 8:36 p.m. when it conflicted with the other flight. Tower controllers intervened and assigned the aircraft divergent headings, according to the NTSB.

No injuries or damage to the aircraft was reported. The NTSB said it would investigate that incident.

http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/business/delta/stories/2008/07/11/delta_near_collision.html

Fonte: Flight Safety Information 14/07/2008.