Seldom do plane collisions occur. Aviation has layers of safety built in for exactly this reason. Radar. Ground control. And cockpit alarms all work together to keep planes apart.
And still, mistakes happen. A pilot misreads instructions. A controller gets a call sign confused. Fog rolls in at the wrong moment. It doesn't take much. Most near-misses never make headlines. They get caught in seconds, alarms blare, planes adjust, and everyone moves on.
But every so often, the margin gets thin enough that people notice. That's when a routine day at a busy airport turns into a story.
It happened in Atlanta on Monday, July 27, when two Delta planes had a close call at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL).
The incident reportedly triggered anti-collision alarms in both cockpits. As reported by CNN's Aaron Cooper, Delta flight 1568 from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania was touching down at ATL, when its pilot asked the tower: "Somebody on the runway?". Per a recording of air traffic control audio obtained by CNN, the tower responded: "He's exiting now."
Nevertheless, the pilot decided to circle the airport and attempt another landing, as he was concerned that the other plane wouldn't move out of the way in time for them to land safely. However, while executing this maneuver, the plane reportedly got too close to flight 2472, bound for Rochester, New York. Flight 2472 had just taken off from a parallel runway and the tower directed its pilot to turn right and climb 4,000 feet, per CNN.
Per CBS News' report, the anti-collision alarm bells sounded in both planes' cockpits, warning them that they were on a collision course. "My goodness," one pilot shouted, as the alarm bell sounded. At their closest point, the planes were separated by approximately 600 feet in altitude and 1,800 feet horizontally, CNN reported. The outlet cited data from Flightradar24.
Long story short, the controller helped direct the aircraft away from each other, with no injuries reported. What's more, both planes landed safely. In a statement, Delta Air Lines said "safety remains at the core of everything we do," adding that its crew have trained extensively for incidents like this. That said, some people flying in and out of Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport say the news made them nervous to fly.
Some of them learned of the near collision between the two planes as they were on a flight about to land in Atlanta. One traveler, Daniel Oquendo, was preparing to fly back to Atlanta from Las Vegas when he read about the incident on social media. Oquendo told Channel 2 Action News that he was surprised when he saw the animation of how close the FAA says the two planes were to each other. "I already have anxiety from flying," Oquendo told the local outlet, adding: "I'm glad I'm seeing that when I'm on the ground."
As mentioned earlier, rarely do plane collisions happen, but near misses happen more often than people realize. It is dangerous. So it is understandable when someone develops a sudden fear of flying because of something they only just found out about.
