UPS plane aborts landing as jet nears runway: “What are you doing?”

A UPS plane had to abort its landing after a Labcorp aircraft approached a runway at Kentucky’s Louisville International Airport, the site of a deadly cargo plane crash last year.

 A Labcorp plane was on the taxiway and told to hold short of runway 17 to allow a UPS plane to land. The Labcorp pilot agreed, but the plane then moved a bit past the hold short bars, setting off alarm systems in the air traffic control tower.

The tower ordered the Labcorp plane to stop, which it did. The UPS plane, which was about 125 feet from the ground, was told to perform a go-around. 

“What are you doing?” an air traffic controller can be heard asking the Labcorp pilot in audio obtained by CBS News. 

“Sorry for that,” the Labcorp pilot can be heard replying. 

 Data from the aircraft tracking site FlightRadar24 shows that the Labcorp plane never actually entered the runway. 

In another audio recording, the pilot of the UPS plane can be heard telling air traffic controllers that they had been unable to communicate with the Labcorp pilot and had been planning to perform a go-around even before the order. 

“And everybody gets to go home at night,” an air traffic controller said. 

In a statement, UPS said that its pilot was acting “in accordance with standard procedures” and that there was “no operational impact” from the incident. 

The Federal Aviation Administration said the UPS and Labcorp planes maintained “required separation.” The incident occurred around 12:10 a.m. local time on Tuesday, according to the FAA. 

The incident nufolded about five months after a UPS cargo plane crashed during takeoff in Louisville, killing 14 people, including the three pilots on board.