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(John Moore/Getty Images)
NEWARK — The Federal Aviation Administration is looking into whether two planes were too close to each other as one was taking off and the other landing at Newark Liberty International Airport Thursday afternoon, an agency spokeswoman said tonight.
The possible “loss of separation” involved an Express Jet Airlines Embraer E145 taking off from one of the airport’s long north-south runways and a United Airlines Boeing 737 landing on Runway 29, the airport’s east-west airstrip.
It is not clear how close the planes came to each other, at what stage of takeoff and landing the planes were or the speed of the Embraer.
The incident was reported to airport authorities by the pilot of Express Jet flight 4100, according to an official familiar with the incident.
That plane was bound for Memphis, the FAA spokeswoman said. It took off at 3:03 p.m., according to flightaware.com, a flight tracking website.
United Airlines Flight 29 was en route from San Francisco, according to the spokeswoman.
More planes have been using Runway 29 since earlier this month as another of the airport's north-south airstrips is being overhauled.