Two Delta passenger jets came uncomfortably close to crossing paths Monday evening at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, after a departing aircraft rolled into the path of an arriving Delta jet that had just initiated a go-around. A third aircraft taking its time clearing another runway helped trigger the chain reaction, but both Delta flights ultimately landed without incident and no injuries were reported.
The Federal Aviation Administration is now investigating the near miss and reviewing what went on in the tower, according to CBS News Atlanta. Air traffic control recordings captured a startled pilot saying, “My goodness,” as cockpit warning systems sounded, a pretty clear sign that the situation got tense in a hurry.
Go-Around Sends Two Delta Jets onto Same Runway Path
Officials cited by CBS News Atlanta said Delta Flight 1568 was on approach to Atlanta when its crew broke off the landing and executed a go-around because of possible runway traffic. As the arriving jet climbed away and came back around, a different Delta flight was already speeding down the runway for departure and crossed in front of Flight 1568 after another aircraft took longer than expected to vacate a runway.
Delta said the Flight 1568 crew followed established procedures to maintain safe separation and that the airline is cooperating with the FAA inquiry. The agency has not publicly identified which runway was involved or said whether it will ultimately classify the event as a runway incursion.
Close Call Follows Boston Runway Scare
The Atlanta brush with danger comes as runway safety at busy U.S. airports faces renewed scrutiny. In June, a Delta flight at Boston Logan was forced into a go-around while an American Airlines jet departed from an intersecting runway; The Associated Press reported that the two aircraft came within roughly 300 feet of each other, based on flight-tracking data.
Atlanta Has Seen a Delta Ground Collision Before
Atlanta is no stranger to scary moments involving Delta jets. In September 2024, a Delta A350 taxiing for a flight to Tokyo clipped the tail of an Endeavor Air CRJ-900 on a parallel taxiway. Delta’s account of that incident said 221 people were aboard the widebody A350 and 56 on the regional jet, and no injuries were reported; the airline later worked with the National Transportation Safety Board and other authorities as they reviewed what happened.
Separately, a FAA runway-safety watch list published in March highlighted that federal officials had already flagged five Georgia airports, including Hartsfield-Jackson, for runway-safety hot spots. The FAA defines those hot spots as parts of an airport movement area with a history or potential risk of collision or runway incursion, and it tracks such events in a system that records both their frequency and severity.
