JOHANNESBURG- On February 23, 2024, a near miss occurred between a Lufthansa Airlines (LH) Boeing 747 and a South African Airways (SA) Airbus A320 on the runway at Johannesburg OR Tambo International Airport (JNB) in South Africa.
Lufthansa Airlines operated flight from Johannesburg to Munich (MUC), while South African Airways came from Port Elizabeth (PLZ) to JNB.
Lufthansa 747 Almost Collided with SA A320
On Friday evening, LH573 had initiated its departure from runway 03L when the South African Airways A320 crossed the runway from an intersecting taxiway. The Lufthansa 747 promptly and safely aborted its takeoff roll.
Lufthansa Airlines flight is operated by Boeing 747-8, regietsed as D-ABYJ. Further, as per Planespotters.net data, the aircraft is 10.7 years old and is powered by GE’s GEnX Engines.
Subsequently, the South African Airways flight is operated by Airbus A320-200, registered as ZS-SZE. The aircraft is 9.7 years old and is powered by IAE Engines.
An investigation is underway to examine the circumstances surrounding this incident.
Users on social media platform X reacted to the post shared about the incident, and one wrote, “One-second difference here, and it would’ve been a disaster.”
While another wrote, “That’s a long runway take-off due to the altitude of OR Tambo. They’re lucky.”
Similar Incident
During takeoff and landing on the same runway at Charleston, South Carolina, a JetBlue (B6) and an American Airlines (AA) flight experienced a loss of separation.
On April 30th of this year, a loss of separation incident occurred involving JetBlue flight B6-2468 and American Airlines flight AA-2325 during their takeoff and landing on the same runway at Charleston International Airport (KCHS).
JetBlue’s daily afternoon flight from KCHS to Boston Logan International (KBOS) is usually operated by an A220-300 aircraft. Which was the case on the day of the incident. The specific aircraft involved in the incident was N3118J, which was delivered in December.
The American Airlines flight, which was a daily service from Dallas Fort Worth (KDFW) to Charleston, was operated by a three-and-a-half-year-old Boeing 737-8 (MAX-8) with the tail number N335SN on the day of the incident.
The air traffic controller at Charleston instructed the JetBlue flight to take off from runway 21 while the American Airlines 737 was approaching to land on a 2-mile final approach.
At that time, the two aircraft were separated horizontally by about 0.4 nautical miles.
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