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Tag: collision
‘Near Midair Collision’ At Newark Airport Recounted By NTSB

‘Near Midair Collision’ At Newark Airport Recounted By NTSB

By Michael Muskal, Los Angeles Times

Two aircraft, one landing and the other taking off, came within just hundreds of yards of colliding with each other at New Jersey’s Newark Liberty Airport last month, according to a preliminary federal report that describes a far more dire picture of the incident than had been thought.

The National Transportation Safety Board report describes the April 24 incident as “a near midair collision,” of a United flight carrying 155 passengers and six crew members from San Francisco and an ExpressJet with 47 passengers and three crew members bound for Memphis.

The required distance between such jets is two miles horizontally but the planes were about 200 feet apart — about two-thirds of a football field. Vertically they were separated by 400 feet.

It was about 3 p.m. EDT at the northeast corner of the well-trafficked airport in New Jersey. Two north-south runways cross Runway 29, an east-west runway.

According to the NTSB preliminary report, an air traffic controller waited for another plane to land on the east-west runway, then cleared the ExpressJet to take off heading north.

At that point, the United flight, coming in to Runway 29, was about three miles away. By the time the ExpressJet flight started its takeoff, the United flight was about one mile off.

As the two planes approached each other, the incoming United flight was ordered by the tower to abort its landing and go back up.

The ExpressJet pilot can be heard on radio telling air traffic controllers he was keeping the plane’s nose down as he climbed. At one point he tells the tower the United flight came “real close” to him.

There was no damage to either aircraft or any injuries, according to the NTSB.

A final report on the incident is expected to take months.

Shyb via Flickr

Woman, 4 Children Killed In California Collision

Woman, 4 Children Killed In California Collision

By Scott Gold, Los Angeles Times

A mother and her four children died in an accident near Fresno, California, as the woman’s husband tried in vain to pull them from the fiery wreckage of their car, authorities said Sunday.

The 29-year-old mother, who was not identified, was driving south about 7 p.m. in a 2003 Ford Expedition in the community of Riverdale, south of Fresno.

With her in the car were her four children, 1- and 3-year-old boys and 6- and 11-year-old girls.

Another woman, identified by the California Highway Patrol as Juana Martinez Bejarano, 41, was driving west on Excelsior Avenue in a 2004 Nissan about 60 mph.

At the intersection with South Marks Avenue, Bejarano apparently failed to heed a stop sign, and the two cars collided, the CHP said.

The mother’s husband — the father of the children — was behind the family in a separate car, officials said. He broke out windows of his family’s car and attempted to free those inside.

He was not successful and suffered burns, CHP Sergeant Joseph Bianchi said.

Martinez Bejarano was injured in the crash and taken to Community Regional Medical Center.

Photo: Abraham.williams via Flickr