American Airlines Flight Nearly Collides With Private Plane Mid-Air Over Austin: Here's What Happened

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is investigating a close call involving an American Airlines Boeing 737 and a Cessna 182. On Wednesday morning, the two planes passed each other by within 350 feet of Austin-Bergstrom International Airport.

Near-Miss IncidentOn American Airlines Flight 2587, which was traveling from Chicago to Austin, there were six crew members and 122 passengers. When the aircraft was getting closer to the airport at around 10:45 a.m. local time, it came across the Cessna 182. According to preliminary data obtained by Flightradar24, the American aircraft was situated around 350 feet above the Cessna, with a horizontal separation of less than 800 feet. The heated conversation between the pilots and controllers was caught on air traffic control audio. "Did you ever see him the second time around?" inquired a controller. "We saw him when he flashed us and flew right into us," the pilot responded. TCAS Alert and ResponseThe FAA claims that the Cessna unintentionally entered the American Airlines aircraft's flying path. The pilots in the Boeing cockpit were alerted to this and were forced to make an escape. They acted in response to a Traffic Collision Avoidance System (TCA) Resolution Advisory (RA) signal from the aircraft. Pilots must respond to an alarm from the TCAS within five seconds in order to avert collisions in midair. The American pilots turned toward a third aircraft, a tiny private jet, as they reacted to the RA. The American Airlines plane and the private jet briefly lost separation as a result of this move. The private flight was quickly directed to reverse course by controllers who acted quickly. The scenario was complicated, but all three planes made a safe landing. History of Close CallsOnly a few days had passed after a similar event in San Diego, where a runway incursion put two Southwest Airlines planes on a collision path. Before anything bad could happen, both planes were stopped. In the wake of the San Diego incident, the FAA launched a safety assessment of runway incursion threats at 45 major U.S. airports. In order to find weaknesses and suggest safety enhancements, the audit will look at the machinery, procedures, and processes that are in place. Previous Austin IncidentIn Austin, there have been such near misses before. At the same airport in February, in cloudy weather, a FedEx 767 almost ran into a Southwest 737. Before the FedEx first officer noticed the Southwest jet and requested a go-around, the planes had approached each other by only 150–170 feet.The incident was ascribed by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) to an air traffic controller's mistaken belief that the Southwest airline would vacate the runway prior to the arrival of the FedEx airplane. FAA ResponseThe professionalism of the American Airlines crew during the incident on Wednesday was commended by an FAA official, who emphasized that safety always comes first. Although there has been a general decline in runway intrusions, the FAA emphasized that even one occurrence is too many.