SIA plane in near miss at Houston airport

[HOUSTON] Two commercial planes had a near miss in the skies above Houston's George Bush Intercontinental Airport last Thursday night, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said.

A Singapore Airlines flight took off shortly before 7 pm, and the pilot did not level off when he reached 4,000 feet (1,219 m) as required. This resulted in the outbound plane being less than 2,000 feet away from a Delta Air Lines flight which was preparing to head into Houston for landing. The incident happened about 10 miles (16 km) north-east of the airport, NBC News reported.

"The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating a loss of required separation that occurred Thursday evening between two jetliners while in airspace controlled by the Houston Terminal Radar Approach Control," a statement said.