Safety recommendations to be released after near plane crash at Austin airport

Austin Airport Tower (Photo/KXAN file)

WASHINGTON DC (KXAN) — The National Transportation Safety Board will hold a meeting Thursday on its investigation into the 2023 near-collision of two airliners at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport.

According to an NTSB statement, the meeting will include “presentations from investigators, deliberations on the draft report, and a vote on proposed findings, probable causes, and safety recommendations” following the February 2023 incident at AUS.

Thursday's meeting begins at 8:30 a.m. Central Time and will be available to the public via live stream.

On February 4, 2023, a FedEx flight cleared to land in AUS and a Southwest Airlines flight ready to take off for Cancun, Mexico, from AUS nearly collided.

In the statement, the NTSB said “there was a loss of separation and a risk of collision” between the two planes.

The FedEx plane was a Boeing 767 model cargo plane, while the Southwest Airlines flight was a Boeing 737 model.

Shortly after the incident, the NTSB shared a rendering of the plane's positions that day.

In November 2023, the Federal Aviation Administration investigation found that FedEx Flight 1432 was cleared to land on Runway 18 Left at AUS around 6:40 a.m. on February 4. This FedEx flight was cleared to land while the plane was still several miles away. from the airport.

Shortly before its scheduled landing, the controller cleared Southwest Flight 708 to take off from the same runway, according to the FAA.

The NTSB released a 300-page report on the incident in November 2023.

In May, Congress passed the Federal Aviation Reauthorization Act of 2024, which focuses on aviation safety. The bipartisan $105 billion law will add more safety inspectors at aircraft factories and fix problems that have led to near misses on runways — including in Austin.

Nabil Remadna and Erica Pauda contributed to this story.