Once again, a near collision at Israel’s Ben-Gurion International Airport is in the news, this time, apparently an incident that was too close for comfort, resulting in the suspension of the air traffic controllers involved pending the outcome of the Civil Air Administration investigation.
On Thursday, December 17th, a Lufthansa passenger plane from Frankfurt to Tel Aviv almost touched down on the very same runway on which an El Al flight was waiting for clearance for takeoff. The ban on reporting the incident was lifted by authorities on Monday morning.
According to persons involved in the incident, due to the inclement weather conditions that existed on Thursday, leading to limited visibility, the Lufthansa flight literally almost landed on top of the El Al plane, with officials noticing the impending catastrophe at a very late stage, coming extremely close to disaster.
The El Al flight received the okay to head to the runway for takeoff, and soon thereafter, air traffic controllers realized the incoming jet was heading for the very same runway. They told the Lufthansa flight to circle overhead, permitting the El Al flight to take off, permitting the incoming flight to land.
(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)
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3 Responses
heneiy lo yanum vlo yishan shomer yisrael. the worst disaster in aviation history to date happened in this manner with two 747’s
Not really like the worst disaster in aviation history!
In that accident, the pilot of a 747 decided to take off without a clearance from the tower: visibility was nill: another 747 was taxiing on the same runway: the pilot’s plane was fully fueled therefore making it too heavy to lift above the other 747 once it came into sight, still on the runway.
This seems more like the accident at LAX about 15 years ago when a commuter aircraft was placed on the runway and forgotten. An arrival aircraft landed on top of it. Due to it being at night, the pilots weren’t able to distinguish between the plan’s lights and the rest of the airport’s lights. All onboard the commuter were killed as well as some on the jet.
Wow – quite scary. Baruch Hashem it was caught in time!