Spain’s airport authority, AENA, says there was never any danger of two planes colliding at Barcelona Airport on Saturday morning. The claim comes after a plane spotter filmed two aircraft in an apparent near-collision on July 5.
The aviation enthusiast, Miguel Ángel Ramírez Ruiz, uploaded the video to YouTube on July 6, and the clip has since gone viral, with 8.5 million views at press time.
According to various reports, a jet, flown by Russian airline Utair, was making its landing approach toward runway 02/20 when an Aerolíneas Argentinas Airbus 340, taxing toward a holding point on Runway 07L/25R, intersected the Utair’s plane’s path. The Utair aborted the landing by ascending again —a maneuver known as a go-around— and circled back to the same runway before landing safely.
In response to the video that captured the go-around, AENA said Monday that there was never any danger of impact as the two aircraft had “plenty of space” between them at all times. The government-owned agency claims that the video was filmed at an angle that exaggerates the closeness between the two planes. Though AENA did not specify the distance between the two aircraft at the time of incident, aviation experts have told the press that they estimate the distance to be about half a mile (800 meters).
An AENA spokeswoman was also quoted as saying that it was, “not about a collision or a possible collision. "
The spokeswoman added that the Aerolineas Argentinas Airbus had permission to taxi across the runway, and the UTair Boeing 767 had permission to land. However, the Russian pilot of the latter plane exercised his authority and chose to abort landing, perform a go-around instead. She added that neither airline have filed a complaint over the incident, and that the AENA has opened an investigation to determine exactly what happened.
