FAA is investigating a midair near-collision between two planes near the Phoenix airport

By Karina Tsui and Alexandra Skores, CNN

(CNN) — The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating a narrowly missed midair collision between a United flight and a Delta flight at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport on Saturday, the agency said.

Delta Flight 1070 had been cleared to land at Sky Harbor’s Runway 8 when a collision warning went off in the cockpit at roughly 11 a.m., according to CNN affiliate KTVK. The flight, carrying 245 passengers on an Airbus A330-300, was inbound from Detroit.

At the same time, a similar alert was set off on United Flight 1724, flying on a Boeing 737-900, from San Francisco, carrying 123 passengers and six crew members.

The FAA noted both planes landed safely “after experiencing a loss of required separation when they were inbound,” adding that air traffic control issued corrective instructions to both crews.

At their closest point, the aircraft were 1,217 feet — less than a quarter mile — apart, according to data from flight tracking site Flightradar24. At the time, the planes were separated vertically by 875 feet.

“Prior to that, United was descending towards the airport above Delta and began climbing again … from a lowest altitude of 4,075 (feet),” Flightradar24 spokesperson Ian Petchenik told CNN in an email Tuesday. At the time United began climbing again, the two aircraft were .793 miles apart laterally (and) 425 feet apart vertically.”

The incident follows a rise in recent years of “runway incursions” across US airports. There were 1,757 such incidents – ranging from very serious ones avoided to minor ones, like a vehicle near a protected surface — FAA data from fiscal 2024 shows. The FAA has responded with more air traffic controller training and a rare summit that addressed the close calls and air traffic controller fatigue.

Delta aircraft are equipped with technology that warns flight crews if the plane is in potential conflict with another aircraft, the airline told CNN after the latest incident near Phoenix.

“As nothing is more important than safety, Delta flight crews extensively train to handle uncommon scenarios such as this and followed the resolution advisory as directed,” a Delta spokesperson said Tuesday in a statement.

United said it was working with the FAA on the investigation.

“While United flight 1724 was preparing to land at Phoenix on Saturday, its pilots received an automated flight deck warning to change their altitude,” a United spokesperson said Tuesday in a statement. “The pilots acted immediately and landed safely.”

Among other recent close calls was a 2023 near-collision at the Austin-Bergstrom International Airport in Texas, where a FedEx Boeing 767 and a Southwest Airlines Boeing 737, were, at their closest point, 150 feet apart.

A later investigation led by the National Transportation Safety Board found the two jets nearly collided because an air traffic controller had a faulty assessment of heavy fog.

Another near-collision between two planes at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York in 2023 was caused by pilots who were repeatedly distracted in the cockpit, the NTSB found.

This story has been updated with additional information.

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2025 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.