Two commercial planes almost crashed shortly after one took off from Portland International Airport during a storm.
The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating how close two commercial airliners came to colliding at Portland International Airport in Oregon during heavy rain last Monday.
Audio of the incident posted online includes an air traffic controller issuing urgent instructions to the crew of an Alaska Airlines flight, telling them to turn away from a nearby SkyWest flight.
“While attempting to land at Portland International Airport, the pilot of Alaska Airlines Flight 1299 initiated a go-around due to wind and turned towards SkyWest Airlines Flight 3978, which had just departed,” the FAA said in a statement. “An air traffic controller instructed the Alaska Airlines pilot to turn away from the SkyWest aircraft.”
Publicly available flight tracking data shows the flights were climbing out from parallel runways – the SkyWest flight had just taken off from Portland’s runway 28 Right while the Alaska Airlines flight had just attempted to land on runway 28 Left. Aviation weather reports from the time of the incident mention poor visibility and heavy rain.
The FAA says it will “determine the closest proximity between the aircraft” as part of its investigation.