WASHINGTON, June 6 (Reuters) -

The National Transportation Safety Board wants new training

for air traffic controllers after the February 2023

near-collision between a FedEx ( FDX ) plane and a Southwest

Airlines ( LUV ) jet in Austin, Texas.

The two planes came within about 170 feet of each other when

the FedEx Boeing 767 was forced to fly over the Southwest ( LUV )

737-700 to avoid a crash in poor visibility conditions. It was

one of at least half a dozen near-miss incidents last year that

raised concerns about U.S. aviation safety and the strain on

understaffed air traffic control.

NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy said at a board meeting to

determine the probable cause and make recommendations that the

incident could have been catastrophic without the actions of the

cargo carrier pilots.

Homendy noted the number of serious runway incursions jumped

in 2023 but has fallen in the first part of 2024.

An air traffic controller had cleared both planes to use

the same runway. He told the NTSB in an interview released last

year he had assumed the Southwest ( LUV ) plane would have already

departed before the FedEx ( FDX ) plane landed given his "expectation

bias" that Southwest ( LUV ) planes were quick to depart.

The Cancun, Mexico-bound Southwest ( LUV ) flight, with 123

passengers and five crew aboard, safely departed. There were

three crew members on the FedEx ( FDX ) plane.

The NTSB raised significant concerns about training of

Federal Aviation Administration air traffic controllers in low

visibility conditions like those in the Austin incident. The

NTSB staff is calling for additional training as well as

additional communications between controllers and flight crews.

The Austin control tower had not conducted training on

low visibility operations during at least the two years before

the incident, the NTSB said.

The FAA is struggling to address a persistent shortage

of air traffic controllers and

has been forced to waive minimum flight requirement

s in New York as a result. At several facilities,

controllers are working mandatory overtime and six-day work

weeks to cover shortages. The FAA agency is about 3,000

controllers behind staffing targets.

The board is again urging the FAA to install surface

detection technology to detect near miss incidents at all major

airports, which it has done for more than 30 years. Austin did

not have the surface detection technology in 2023 and the FAA

has vowed to install technology there by the end of 2024, the

NTSB said.