It could have been one of the worst aviation disasters in history, when two passenger planes nearly hit each other at El Prat Airport in Barcelona on Saturday. One plane was about to fly off Spain, while the other was supposed to land.
The planes close to seconds of collision were captured in an amateur video taken and posted by Miguel Angel, said to be a plane enthusiast, on YouTube.
In the video, passenger aircraft Aerolineas Argentinas Airbus A340-300 could be seen crossing the airport’s runway, while seen above was Russian airline UTair Boeing 767-300 on the point of landing on Runway 2. Utair was forced to abort the landing and suddenly climbed in an obvious attempt to evade the possible crash.
Angel’s video description said, "[T]hey [the pilots] did their best making an impressive and close go around."
UTair safely landed on Runway 2, while Aerolineas headed off to Buenos Aires. No one was hurt on either plane, according to Aeropuertos Españoles y Navegación Aérea (AENA), the airport authority in Spain.
Regardless, the incident incited an investigation from AENA, which found that no possible danger of collision was seen as enough space was carried out for landing of two planes.
A spokeswoman at AENA said that UTair’s pilot was given the green light to land, yet applied his authority to abort the landing. She also said the video didn’t show the plenty of space in between the two planes. Neither of the airlines involved submitted a complaint.
An expert enumerated three potential reasons for the incident.
"The instructions to the A340 possibly were misunderstood by the captain, or they might not have heard or acknowledged the instructions, or there may have been no instruction issued from the control tower," Captain John Holmes, Ansett Aviation Training’s flight training manager, explained.
UTair, meanwhile, said in a statement that its pilot on a flight to Barcelona from Moscow was following instructions from airport dispatchers at Barcelona.
"While lowering on a final approach track the commander found an obstacle on the runway (the aircraft of another airlines was crossing it)," said UTair. "The aircraft commander took prompt decision on the implementation of standard operating procedure -- go-around flight maneuver."
The Barcelona airport incident came days following a close to midair crash Thursday night at 16 kilometers northeast of the Bush International Airport in Houston between a Delta Airlines A320 and a Singapore Airlines 777 jumbo jet.
The two planes came around 200 feet or 60 meters vertically and around half a mile or 800 meters horizontally of each other. State guidelines require planes should be separated three miles or 4.8 kilometers horizontally and half a mile or 800 meters vertically.
Lyn Lunsford of the US Federal Aviation Administration said to Houston Chronicle that the pilots were given instructions by the air traffic controller as soon as the latter saw the impending collision.
Angel has already posted hundreds of plane videos on YouTube and said that what he witnessed at Barcelona airport was "one of the worst experiences I have ever had." The video sparked millions of views and thousands of comments from viewers.
