Near-disaster at Manchester airport

Two holiday jets reportedly came within seconds of colliding on Manchester airport’s runway after a mistake was made by air traffic controllers. According to the Daily Mail, “one of the worst aviation disasters in British history” was narrowly avoided on Sunday morning, as an Airbus 321 with 220 passengers on board narrowly avoided crashing into a Boeing 737 that was taxiing across the runway, carrying 122 passengers. The newspaper reports that the MyTravel Airbus pilot “slammed on its brakes and plumes of smoke billowed from the tyres as it came to a halt just 20 yards from the point where the Ryanair plane (the Boeing 737) had just crossed”. Both carriers reportedly claim they were following instructions from air traffic control; both blame the control tower for the near-miss. An airport source told the newspaper: “An investigation has been launched but it appears to have been a case of human error. Both pilots were simply obeying air traffic control.” According to the paper, the airport has parallel runways, which means planes landing on runway two have to cross runway one in order to get to the terminal. Report by Tim Gillett, News From Abroad