Now a near miss on runway at Austin's airport

A FedEx cargo airplane attempting to land at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport on Saturday morning was seconds from disaster with the flight crew suddenly forced to pull up and abort their landing after a Southwest Airlines plane was also cleared to takeoff from the same runway.

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The two planes appeared to come within 75 vertical feet of one another.

The Boeing 767 cargo airplane was several miles from the airport when it was cleared to land, according to the FAA but just before it was about to touch down an air traffic controller also gave the go-ahead for the Southwest Boeing 737 to take off on the exact same stretch of tarmac.

‘Shortly before the FedEx aircraft was due to land, the controller cleared Southwest Flight 708 to depart from the same runway,’ the Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement.

‘The pilot of the FedEx airplane discontinued the landing and initiated a climb out.’

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