Two commercial jets that nearly collided north of Hawaii last month were at altitudes assigned to them by air traffic controllers, the National Transportation Safety Board tells CNN.
The cause of the near-disaster in the skies east of the Hawaiian Islands on April 25 is still under investigation. But a source with knowledge of the probe said the early focus is finding out why the planes were assigned to altitudes that put them dangerously close.
The incident was brought to public attention when a passenger on one of the planes wrote a blog titled: “Two Weeks Ago, I Almost Died in the Deadliest Plane Crash Ever.”
In the incident, United Airlines Flight 1205, which was headed east to Los Angeles from Kona International Aiport on the Big Island of Hawaii, had to descend quickly to avoid a westbound US Airways jet, approximately 200 miles northeast of Kona.
The United pilots received an audible warning that the plane was in danger from its traffic collision avoidance system, which monitors airspace around a plane. Both planes were Boeing 757s.
Flight-tracking websites show the United plane descended 600 feet in 60 seconds.
The passenger who wrote the blog post, Kevin Townsend, described feeling weightless as the United plane suddenly plunged. CNN
