A report into a near-collision involving an Aer Lingus flight with 272 passengers and crew aboard has confirmed the plane came within seconds of a crash.
The incident happened at Logan Airport in Boston on June 9th at around 7.40pm (local time), according to the preliminary investigation carried out by the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).
The Aer Lingus Airbus A330 to Shannon came as close as 200-feet to a US Airways Boeing 737 carrying 109 people bound for Philadelphia.
The planes had been cleared for take-off within five seconds of each other from different runways that meet at an intersection.
The US Airways flight had called the “V1” - the last opportunity to abort take-off - when they noticed the Irish flight taking off. The co-pilot told the captain to “keep it down” and pushed the control column forward, averting potential disaster.
“The Airbus passed overhead our aircraft with very little separation,” the report quotes the co-pilot saying. “I reported to departure control that we had a near miss at which time Aer Lingus reported 'we concur''”.
A Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) spokesman is quoted saying the planes "came within seconds" of each other and confirmed the Aer Lingus pilot had filed a near-collision report - which is required when planes come within 500 feet of each other.
A spokesperson for the Irish Aviation Authority said it was not carrying out an investigation at this time because the incident happened in another jurisdiction. The authority would only have reason to act if a question arose about the proper operation of the Aer Lingus flight.
The flight data recorders were removed from both planes A spokesman for the NTSB told ireland.comthat a "final, factual report" would take about six months.
It is unclear whether passengers were aware of the near-miss. The flight continued onto Shannon without stopping, the FAA said.