Jet Almost Lands On Closed Runway

A Continental Airlines jetliner nearly landed on a closed runway at Newark International Airport early Thursday, an airport spokesman said.

Flight 150, en route from San Francisco to Newark, came with 10 feet of touching down on a runway that had been closed for routine electrical maintenance work, said Steve Coleman, a spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. The incident happened about 6:15 a.m. ET

The pilot had been told to use the correct runway, but as the jet descended, the controller noticed it was approaching the closed runway and ordered the pilot to pull up and go around to the proper runway, said the leader of the airport's air traffic controllers.

"We listened to the tapes, and we confirmed it," said Daniel D'Agostino, president of the Newark division of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association.

After being alerted by the tower, the pilot regained altitude, circled the airfield and landed on the open runway several minutes later, Coleman said.

Coleman and Continental spokeswoman Catherine Stengel said they did not yet know what instructions the pilot got from the controller, or how quickly the pilot responded to the go-around order.

D'Agostino said it probably took only about 10 seconds for the pilot to "reconfigure" the aircraft and begin pulling up.

He said the controller, a 13-year veteran, had cleared Flight 150 to land on runway 22-Right because 22-Left was closed.

"The pilot misunderstood and was lined up for 22-Left," he said.

The two runways, which run parallel to the New Jersey Turnpike, are only 900 feet apart, he said.

When the jet became visible in the pre-dawn haze, the controller noticed it was heading for the closed runway, D'Agostino said.

"The controller did the right thing by issuing a go-around clearance to the pilot," he said, declining to name the controller.

The Boeing 757 carried 125 passengers and seven crew members, Stengel said. No one on board was injured.

A maintenance worker was performing inspections near the runway when the incident occurred, Coleman said. He said the worker was not in jeopardy.

Coleman and Stengel said the Federal Aviation Administration would investigate.

A message left Thursday morning for the FAA was not immediately returned.

Newark International Airport is among the nation's busiest airports, with 463,000 flights last year, but the incident happened during a very slow period, Coleman said.

"That's why we close runways for routine maintenance because there's very little activity at that hour," he said.

The runway had been closed shortly after midnight and was being inspected in preparation for it to reopen when the incident happened, he said.

Continental is based in Houston.