UPS jet has near miss at Kentucky airport that saw deadly fireball plane crash in November
“Skylab two five. What are you doing?”
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“Skylab two five. What are you doing?”
A UPS jet had a close call with another plane at a Kentucky airport where 14 people died in a separate freight jet fiasco just months ago. When the near miss happened the air traffic controller shouted at the pilot in the plane, "What are you doing?’
UPS’ Boeing 767, which had been coming from Atlanta, was forced to abort a landing at Louisville's Muhammad Ali International Airport just after midnight on Tuesday. A smaller SKQ-25 aircraft was on the runway, blocking the landing for the UPS jet, according to WHAS.
The incident led to chaos in the control tower. "Skylab two five stop," an air traffic controller yelled before instructing the UPS plane to go around.
"Skylab two five. What are you doing?" the controller asked before telling the pilot to cross the runway.
Radar tracking showed the UPS aircraft barely avoided the other plane. UPS spokesperson Michelle Polk confirmed the plane carried out the go-around procedure "beautifully” and that "there was no operational impact" during the incident.
Go-arounds take place when a descending plane aborts their landing operation and then have to circle back to the airport before landing. While Polk wouldn't confirm the proximity to landing, an FAA spokesperson stated the "required separation was maintained.”
According to the New York Post, Muhammad Ali International houses UPS's main delivery hub "Worldport” and processes 2 million packages daily handles 416,000 packages each hour. This incident occurred five months after a fuel-laden cargo plane crashed after takeoff, exploding on impact. Fourteen people died when the aircraft hit nearby buildings.
The plane reached only 30 feet altitude before the left engine detached from the plane, leading to the crash.
The initial death toll had been 14, but Alain Rodriguez Colina, who suffered severe injuries, died on Christmas day several weeks after the crash. The plane had exploded in a fireball when the accident took place in November.
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