Close Call at Newark Airport Spurs Probe

Two jets landing on crisscrossing runways at Newark Liberty International Airport got close enough on Tuesday night to trigger a federal investigation. The New York Times and the AP report that an Alaska Airlines Flight 294 coming in from Portland, Oregon, was ordered to abort its landing around 8:15pm ET after controllers had already cleared a FedEx Boeing 777 from Memphis, Tennessee, to land on an intersecting runway, according to the FAA.

Flight-tracking site Flightradar24 estimates the planes passed within roughly 300 to 325 feet of each other. The Alaska pilots on the Boeing 737 executed a "go-around," a standard maneuver in which a landing is broken off and the plane climbs to try again; the FedEx crew continued and touched down "without incident," the carrier said.

No injuries were reported, and it's not yet known how many people were on board either aircraft. Both the FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board are probing the "close call," which follows a recent minor ground collision at Newark and comes as the airport wrestles with controller staffing and equipment issues.