A Delta jet that aborted a landing at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport got so close to a plane taking off that anti-collision alarms sounded in both aircraft, according to air traffic control audio of the incident.
Delta flight 1568, flying from Pittsburgh, was coming in for a landing in Atlanta late Monday evening after bad weather forced the plane to divert to Chattanooga, Tennessee, for a couple of hours.
“Somebody on the runway?” the pilot asked the tower, according to a recording of air traffic control audio from ATC.net. “He’s exiting now,” the tower responded.
But the pilot, apparently concerned the other plane would not get out of the way in time, radioed he was “going around” and would circle the airport for another attempt.
Meanwhile, Delta flight 2472 had just taken off from a parallel runway and the controller directed its pilots to turn right and climb to 4,000 feet, putting it directly in the path of the other plane.
