Airbus, Boeing jets in near miss over Alaska

WASHINGTON, May 29, 2010 AFP - An Airbus A319 passenger jet and a Boeing 747-400 cargo plane were involved in a near-miss incident over Alaska a week ago with no injuries reported among the 140 people on both jets, US authorities said Friday.

The National Transportation Safety Board said the Airbus, operating as US Airways Flight 140, was carrying 138 passengers and crew and the cargo plane a crew of two when they “came within an estimated 100 feet (30 meters) vertically and a .33-mile (530-meter) lateral separation.”

The May 21 incident took place at night near Anchorage International Airport as the cargo plane took off for Chicago and the US Airways flight was coming in for a landing from Phoenix, Arizona, the NTSB said in a statement.

The Airbus pilots scrapped their initial landing attempt due to tailwinds and after requesting new landing instructions from the control tower, were told to turn right and report back when they saw the 747 departing.

Once the cargo plane was sighted, the Airbus was told to “maintain visual separation,” climb to 3000 feet (910 meters) and turn right.

But the Airbus pilots refused to obey “because the turn would have put their flight in direct conflict with the B747,” the NTSB said.Instructed to “monitor vertical speed” for a descent, the Airbus began dropping in altitude and lost sight of the B747.

At 1,500 feet the plane’s Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance System bellowed out a verbal warning: “traffic, traffic.”

“There were no reported injuries or damage to either aircraft,” the NTSB said, adding that a board investigator was heading to Anchorage to investigate the incident.