A Southwest plane came perilously close to hitting LaGuardia Airport’s air traffic control tower.
Southwest Flight 147 from Nashville to New York veered off course when coming in for a landing on March 23 around 1 pm because of inclement weather.
The Boeing 737 plane, which had 150 people on board, came within 67 feet of the control tower.
The plane circled the airport once and then swooped down as low as 300 feet, creating panic in the air traffic control tower.
In audio captured by LiveATC.net, air traffic control personnel can be heard shouting: ‘Go around! Go around!’
Southwest Flight 147, which was carrying 150 passengers, came within 67 feet of the air traffic control tower
The plane flew as low as 300 feet above the ground before being ordered to climb up 2,000 feet
The plane was ordered to abort the landing and fly upward 2,000 feet.
The controller quipped that the plane was not aligned properly with the runway.
‘It was like east of final. He was not going to land on the runway,’ the controller said, shortly after issuing the injunction to ‘continue climbing.’
The Southwest flight was then diverted to Baltimore, where it executed a safe landing, ‘after encountering turbulence and low visibility at New York LaGuardia Airport,’ Southwest said in a statement.
The near miss is now the subject of an investigation by the FAA.
The Federal Aviation Administration’s probe is centered around the circumstances which led to the Southwest plane’s close call with the air traffic control tower.
‘The FAA is investigating and will determine if the aircraft flew over the tower at LaGuardia,’ an agency spokesperson said in a statement.
Southwest Airlines said that they were ‘reviewing the event’ as part of their ‘safety systems.’
The LaGuardia air traffic control tower, pictured, was almost hit by the Southwest plane
The National Transportation Safety Board also announced that they would be investigating the incident, but are not planning to release any immediate reports.
Southwest’s incident with the air tower is part of a larger pattern of near collisions at US airports, an issue which the FAA aims to get to the bottom of.
An expert panel released a report in November that flagged several factors that contribute to near collisions, including irregular funding, obsolete technology, burdensome training conditions, and poorly staffed air traffic control towers.
The report stated that the combination of these factors resulted in ‘an erosion of safety margins that must be urgently addressed.’