Washington/Chicago (USA) - Two planes in the United States had to abort their landing yesterday morning to prevent a serious accident. Both incidents occurred about 90 minutes apart - one in Washington, the other in Chicago.

The first flight was an American Airlines plane that had just arrived from Boston and was about to land at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, according to the New York Times.

As the pilots were about to bring the plane down at around 8.20 a.m. (local time), a radio message suddenly came from the air traffic controller instructing them to abort the landing.

This prevented a last-minute collision with a plane that was about to take off.

A spokesperson for American Airlines announced that this was a fairly ordinary maneuver - a traveler who was on the plane saw it a little differently.

"It was not ordinary. It felt like the pilot had to do an emergency maneuver," the passenger told the New York Times. However, the plane eventually made it to the ground without any problems.

The other flight was a Southwest Airlines plane.

It was due to arrive on a runway at Midway International Airport in Chicago at around 8.50 a.m. (local time).

However, a private jet was on the runway without permission and forced the landing aircraft to take off.

The incident is still under investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board. Southwest Airlines has since confirmed that the crew followed all safety procedures and the plane landed without incident.

Near misses and fatal crashes have been a recurring theme in the USA since the beginning of this year.

Most recently, one of the worst air accidents in the history of the United States occurred when an American Airlines plane collided with a Black Hawk helicopter .