Witnesses on the ground could ‘see the screws’ on the belly of jet

A PASSENGER jet allegedly nearly collided with oncoming traffic before grazing an airport fence, with witnesses saying it was so close they could “see the screws”.

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A PASSENGER jet nearly collided with oncoming traffic while landing in Costa Rica, coming within metres of stunned drivers before grazing an airport security fence.

The Iberia plane made the nailbiting landing at the Juan Santamaría International Airport, which is located 20 kilometres from the Costa Rican capital of San Jose on Sunday afternoon, the Tico Times reports.

The plane was coming from Madrid on flight 6313 and witnesses on the ground described how it came within meters of cars surrounding the runway.

Close call landing in Iberia San Jose. Picture: MROC/SJO/Aeropuerto Internacional Juan Santamaría Facebook page.

The incident sparked a flurry of comments on social media from residents and onlookers.

One Facebook commenter said the plane was so low, she could “see the screws” on the bottom of the jet.

The Tico Times said local residents reported the plane shook their homes upon descent.

This video show how close the Airbus A340, which seats about 350 passengers, was to structures on the ground.

A man who works as a private security guard at the airport wrote on the Juan Santamaría Facebook page that he’s been working at the airport for some years and “I can tell you I’ve never seen a plane fly so low upon landing on this side of the runway”.

Rolando Richmond from Costa Rica’s Civil Aviation Authority said “the landing was perfectly normal and according to regulations”.

“There’s no stated altitude that pilots need to cross that part of the security fence,” he told the Tico Times.

“It doesn’t exist, because the only condition pilots have at that time is to make sure they are able to land where the airport’s threshold is and to activate their tires in time.”

But he did say that the pilot initially attempted to land on runway number seven, which takes in planes coming from the east and uses electronic devices for precision landing.

In the end, the pilot veered around to land on runway number 25, which is used by western-originating flights, which requires each pilot to make judgment calls as to when to activate landing gear.

José Luís Granados, a taxi driver who lives near the airport, said he witnessed the landing and that the plane looked to be flying just 200 meters off the ground over houses and the highway.

“I saw on the news they’re saying it was a normal landing because of the wind, but I’ll tell you that’s not true,” he said.

“It was way too low.”

Iberia has been contacted by news.com.au for comment.