THIS is the spine chilling moment a passenger plane and a cargo jet narrowly avoid a catastrophic smash in a radar blunder.
The two planes were both flying in the airspace at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey at the time of the close call.
A video of the flight map shows the moment the two aircrafts were just seconds away from tragedy, directly heading towards a collision.
The planes on the map show the Fedex cargo jet (labelled FDX721) curve around.
Its path was taking the plane directly into the route of the Alaska Airlines flight (labelled ASA294).
The video from FlightRadar24 shows just how close to disaster the flights were on Tuesday evening.
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The Alaska Airlines flight had been ordered to perform a-go-around when the FedEx flight was cleared to approach the intersecting runways for landing, according to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
The passenger plane avoided the chartered cargo jet just 300 feet.
Air traffic controllers directed the Alaska flight to reroute just seconds before it was due to land, according to audio of the moments ahead of the crossover.
Former vice president of the FAA Michael McCormick told ABC 7 New York that the terrifying ordeal had happened because of the two intersecting runways.
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“It is a challenge for a tower controller to try to get that timing perfect, it doesn’t always work and that’s what happened in this case,” he said.
“So the tower controller waited and unfortunately, in my opinion, too long and they had to send the aircraft on a go-around.”
An investigation has been launched by the FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board into the near crash.
The continuing partial government shutdowns in the United States have resulted in significant staffing shortages in major airports across the country.
TSA workers are currently not being paid for the hours they are working.
To date, White House economists have estimated the cost of the shutdowns to be upwards of $2.5 billion in losses.
Last week, Senate Democrats blocked a bill for the fourth time this month that would have resparked funding for the Department of Homeland Security.
Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian has slammed Congress for the continued shutdown.
He called politicians’ refusal to settle the funding fight “inexcusable”
“We’re outraged,” Bastian said.
The partial shutdown entered its 34th day on Friday.
