Cargolux aircraft averts mid-air collision
The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board said Friday it has launched an investigation into the near mid-air collision of a passenger jet and a Cargolux cargo plane.
The incident occurred on May 21 as the Cargolux Airlines 747-400 was taking off from Anchorage International Airport and barely missed a US Airways A319 that was circling the Alaska airport, according to the NTSB. The planes came within 100 vertical feet of each other, with only a third of a mile of lateral separation.
The US Airways plane was arriving from Phoenix with 138 passengers while the Cargolux freighter was headed to Chicago.
The Airbus missed its original approach because of strong tail winds and began a loop to try a second landing. Confusion about instructions from air traffic control on how to avoid the 747 appears to have contributed to the near-miss.
Cargolux aircraft averts mid-air collision
