Air Traffic Controller Blamed for Near Mid-Air Collision of 2 Planes at Syracuse Airport

Syracuse, N.Y. — An air traffic controller is responsible for a near mid-air collision at Syracuse’s airport this summer, federal investigators say.

A “performance issue” by a controller caused the two commuter planes to come within several hundred feet of each other, federal aviation officials told syracuse.com | The Post-Standard.

The issue was dealt with through “standard processes,” according to a statement from the Federal Aviation Administration. The agency did not respond to questions about what happened to the controller.

The FAA declined to provide more information about the investigation or the controller.

On the morning of July 8, the controller cleared a plane to take off from Syracuse Hancock International Airport as another plane prepared to land on the same runway. The two planes came so close to each other that one pilot took evasive action and a mid-air collision warning sounded.

American Flight 5511, arriving from Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C., was cleared to land on the runway around 11:48 a.m., according to an audio recording on LiveATC.net, a website that posts live and archived recordings of radio transmissions. It was passing over Manlius and making its final approach to the airport.

But an air traffic controller told departing Delta Flight 5421 around 11:51 a.m. that it was cleared to take off from the same runway. The arriving American flight was about a mile or so east of the airport at that point.

A pilot from a different flight quickly interjected.

“Wait, who’s cleared for takeoff on 28?” the pilot asked.

An air traffic controller directed the American flight to “go around.”

Less than a thousand feet off the ground, the pilots needed to stop their landing attempt and quickly gain altitude. They would circle back for another try at landing.

Not too far below, the Delta flight continued rolling down the runway and lifted off.

The two commuter planes came within around 600 feet of each other near the western edge of the runway, just south of the Northern Lights shopping plaza, according to data from the flight tracking website Flightradar24. That’s about the length of two football fields.

Planes are generally required to be vertically separated by at least 1,000 feet from each other below 29,000 feet in altitude.

The gap this summer was small enough that an automated “resolution advisory” briefly went off in the American flight’s cockpit, alerting them to a potential collision. The alarm typically rings about 20 seconds before a potential collision.

“Responding to an RA. Oop, now we’re clear,” one of the pilots on the American flight told air traffic controllers.

The potential danger was short-lived.

The departing Delta flight kept heading west before making a hook to the south toward New York City, while the arriving American flight made a tighter turn to loop back to the airport.

Both planes later landed safely.

There is a nationwide shortage of air traffic controllers, according to The New York Times. It is not clear whether a staffing shortage was related to the incident in Syracuse.

A panel of officials from the FAA and the controllers union recommends the Syracuse airport have 28 fully certified controllers on staff. Seventeen were employed at the airport as of September 2023, according to an FAA report.

Staff writer Jon Moss covers breaking news, crime and public safety. He can be reached at [email protected] or @mossjon7 .

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