Near-Miss at Newark: Alaska and FedEx Jets Seconds From Collision on Intersecting Runways

Runway Near-Miss: Alaska 737 and FedEx 777 Seconds From Collision at Newark

• An Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 was ordered to abort landing at 8:15 p.m. Tuesday after controllers cleared a FedEx 777 for an intersecting runway at Newark Liberty International Airport.
• The National Transportation Safety Board classified the episode as a ‘close call’ and opened an investigation.
• The Alaska jet climbed, circled, and landed safely 15 minutes later; the FedEx freighter continued its approach without further incident.
• Newark has now recorded three Category B runway incursions in 12 months, intensifying scrutiny of air-traffic procedures at the busy hub.

Intersecting clearances at America’s 12th-busiest airport put 137 passengers and two cockpit crews in jeopardy for less than 30 seconds—yet another reminder that U.S. runway safety buffers are shrinking.

NEWARK NEAR-MISS— Newark Liberty International Airport, already under FAA scrutiny for repeated loss-of-separation events, became the scene of the nation’s most serious runway near-miss this year when an Alaska Airlines passenger jet and a FedEx cargo plane were simultaneously cleared to land on paths that intersect at the airport’s southeast corner.

The Alaska Boeing 737-900, operating as Flight 2226 from Seattle with 137 passengers and six crew, was on short final to Runway 22R when tower controllers instructed the crew to “go around” because a FedEx Boeing 777 freighter had just been cleared for Runway 29, whose threshold intersects 22R at a 55-degree angle.

Radar data reviewed by the Federal Aviation Administration show the two aircraft reached the convergence point 27 seconds apart—well inside the 90-second minimum separation standard for intersecting approaches. The NTSB dispatched a four-member team to Newark on Wednesday morning, spokesman Keith Holloway confirmed.

How a Single Controller Instruction Put Two Jets on a Collision Course

The critical error occurred inside the Newark tower cab at approximately 8:13 p.m. when the local controller cleared FedEx Flight 1372, a triple-seven arriving from Memphis, for an instrument approach to Runway 29. Two minutes later, the same controller released Alaska 2226 to land on Runway 22R, apparently overlooking that the two runways intersect 1,400 feet from the 22R threshold.

Audio archived by LiveATC.net captures the moment: “Alaska 2226, runway 22R, cleared to land, wind 270 at 11.” Seventeen seconds later, the controller instructs, “FedEx 1372, continue approach, runway 29.” Neither crew questioned the conflicting clearances, standard procedure when visibility is 10 miles and both aircraft are in direct radio contact with tower.

Dr. Arnold Barnett, aviation safety statistician at MIT, notes that intersecting-runway operations carry an inherent 3.8-fold higher collision risk than parallel approaches, according to a 2023 FAA-funded study. “The human brain is not optimized for three-dimensional trigonometry under time pressure,” Barnett said. “Controllers must rely on memory aids and strip-holders, and when those fail, the system is only as good as the last verbal instruction.”

The 27-second gap

Preliminary radar replay shows the Alaska jet was 87 feet above the runway when the go-around instruction came; the FedEx aircraft crossed the same intersection at 132 feet. Both aircraft were traveling at 155 knots, yielding a closure rate of 310 knots—meaning physical impact would have occurred in 6.2 seconds had either crew hesitated. Newark’s runway configuration, last redesigned in 2002, funnels 68 percent of arrivals onto these two intersecting strips during west-flow operations, intensifying the risk.

The FAA re-certified Newark’s tower procedures in January after implementing new “red-bars” on electronic flight strips that flash when intersecting approaches are selected. Investigators will examine why the alert did not trigger or was overridden. Similar software gaps were implicated in the 2022 Austin near-miss between a Southwest 737 and a FedEx 767, where aircraft came within 100 feet vertically.

Consequence: expect an emergency order mandating automated runway incursion detection at all U.S. core-30 airports within 90 days, sources inside the FAA’s Air Traffic Organization told Reuters on background. Airlines for America, the carrier trade group, has already endorsed the $210 million capital plan, but funding must be appropriated by Congress before the fiscal year ends.

Newark’s Repeat Offender Status: Why the Airport Keeps Making the List

Newark Liberty is no stranger to runway close calls. Tuesday’s incident marks the airport’s third Category B loss of separation since March 2025, pushing Newark into the FAA’s top-five “challenged facilities” list alongside Las Vegas, Denver, Phoenix, and Charlotte. Only Los Angeles International recorded more intersecting-runway incursions over the past decade.

The airport’s 1970s-era layout funnels arrivals onto two main east-west runways—22R/4L and 29/11—that intersect at the heart of the field. When winds favor west operations, controllers land aircraft on both strips simultaneously to keep throughput above 52 arrivals per hour, the minimum needed to avoid cascading delays across the Northeast corridor.

Dr. Carla Koopman, a former FAA runway safety analyst now at George Mason University, points out that Newark’s intersecting geometry creates 64 “hot spots” where aircraft paths overlap. “That is triple the average for large-hub airports,” she said. “Add in Newark’s complex taxiway lattice and you have a system that punishes even small controller errors.”

Funding stalemate

A $2.1 billion reconfiguration plan that would realign Runway 29 farther north has languished since 2018 because the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey and the FAA cannot agree on cost sharing. The agency’s current capital improvement program allocates only $43 million for “interim safety enhancements,” including new LED hold-short lights and controller training simulators.

Congressional auditors at the Government Accountability Office warned in February that 17 major U.S. airports—including Newark—lack automated runway-status lights, technology proven to cut incursions 34 percent at airports where installed. Full deployment would cost $1.3 billion, but the FAA’s budget request for fiscal 2027 contains only $98 million for the program.

Airline trade group Airlines for America estimates that Newark delays cost carriers $340 million annually in extra fuel, crew time, and passenger compensation. Tuesday’s go-around will add roughly $18,000 in direct operating costs for Alaska alone, according to MIT’s Airline Data Project, not counting downstream passenger rebookings.

Is Technology or Human Error the Bigger Threat?

While human miscommunication triggered Tuesday’s event, investigators are weighing whether automation should have intervened. Newark is equipped with the FAA’s latest Airport Surface Detection Equipment, Model X (ASDE-X), a radar-and-transponder fusion system that predicts conflicts up to 30 seconds ahead. The system did generate an aural “Traffic, Traffic” alert inside the tower, but controllers overrode it, believing the Alaska crew could land and hold short of the intersection.

Professor R. John Hansman, director of MIT’s International Center for Air Transportation, says such overrides are common. “Controllers are trained to keep traffic moving; the culture rewards efficiency,” Hansman explained. “When a computer yells ‘conflict’ but visual scanning suggests separation is adequate, the human tends to trust eyes over algorithms.”

Over-reliance on TCAS

Both aircraft carry Traffic Collision Avoidance System (TCAS) units, but TCAS is designed for airborne—not surface—conflicts. On runways, TCAS logic filters out aircraft below 400 feet, precisely the zone where Tuesday’s encounter unfolded. The NTSB has recommended since 2015 that the FAA develop a surface-movement collision-alert system analogous to TCAS, but rulemaking has stalled amid industry debate over false-alarm rates.

Internationally, only four airports—Singapore Changi, Dubai International, London Heathrow, and Paris-Charles de Gaulle—operate an experimental system called Runway Status Lights (RWSL), which turns embedded red lights on directly in front of pilots when it is unsafe to enter or cross a runway. FAA tests at Dallas-Fort Worth showed RWSL cut incursions 56 percent, but installation costs average $18 million per runway end.

Policy implication: Senate Commerce Committee staffers tell Reuters that Tuesday’s Newark event will likely be cited in forthcoming markup of the FAA Reauthorization bill, expected this summer, which could mandate RWSL at the 30 busiest U.S. airports by 2030 and appropriate up to $650 million over five years.

What the NTSB Will Scrutinize Next—and What It Means for Travelers

The NTSB’s Go-Team arrived at Newark Wednesday morning with a laundry list: retrieve 30 days of controller training records, download ASDE-X radar logs, interview the tower supervisor on duty, and extract cockpit voice recordings from both aircraft. A preliminary factual report is due within 15 business days, but final probable-cause findings typically take 12 to 18 months.

Board member Michael Graham, designated principal investigator, told reporters the probe will focus on three areas: controller scan-pattern habits, the effectiveness of the electronic flight-strip conflict alert, and whether either airline’s crew could have questioned the intersecting clearances under the FAA’s “ sterile cockpit” rule below 10,000 feet.

Possible outcomes

Enforcement sanctions are likely. The FAA’s Newark tower manager has already imposed mandatory 2-hour refresher briefings on intersecting-runway procedures for all controllers. If the NTSB classifies the event as an “operational error,” the controller on duty could receive a Letter of Correction or, in egregious cases, a 10-day suspension without pay.

Policy ripple effects could be broader. Former NTSB chairman Robert Sumwalt predicts the board will reiterate a 2020 recommendation that the FAA require separate tower positions for intersecting-runway operations—essentially doubling staffing during peak hours. “We’ve seen this movie before,” Sumwalt said. “Until the FAA changes the geometry or the staffing model, Newark will keep repeating history.”

For passengers, the immediate impact is minimal: Alaska Airlines says it has no plans to cancel future Newark flights, and the FAA has not restricted runway configurations. Long-term, expect more go-arounds as controllers adopt conservative spacing until technological safeguards are installed.

Could This Happen Again? Inside the Push for Safer Runways

Aviation safety experts agree Tuesday’s close call is not an outlier but a harbinger. U.S. runway incursions have risen 27 percent since 2022 as traffic rebounded faster than controller staffing. The FAA currently trains 1,600 new controllers annually, yet attrition at retirement-age facilities like Newark leaves a net gain of only 220 certified professionals per year—insufficient to meet demand at core-30 airports.

Technology offers a partial fix. The FAA’s forthcoming Terminal Flight Data Manager (TFDM) program, scheduled for initial deployment at Phoenix this fall, will fuse digital flight strips with artificial-intelligence conflict prediction. Early simulations show a 38 percent reduction in surface-loss-of-separation events, but full nationwide rollout is not budgeted until 2033.

Airline perspective

Alaska Airlines declined to comment on the Newark event, citing the NTSB investigation, but the carrier has invested $12 million in upgraded avionics for its 737 fleet, including software that provides flight-deck alerts when the aircraft approaches an occupied runway. FedEx, whose 777s already carry heads-up guidance for low-visibility approaches, says it is evaluating synthetic-vision systems that paint runway traffic symbols directly on pilot displays.

Consumer takeaway: until automation catches up, travelers should expect more conservative spacing on final approach, especially at Newark, Las Vegas, and Denver—airports with intersecting runway geometry. That could add five to seven minutes to average flight times this summer, according to Airlines for America, but it also means the margin for error is finally widening.