Planes in 'near miss' at airport

These two passenger jets appear to come within a whisker of crashing into each other at a Barcelona airport — before a quick-thinking pilot took action.

The Boeing 767 from Russian airline Utair was coming into land at Spain's El Prat Airport on a flight from Moscow last Saturday just as an Aerolineas Argentinas Airbus 340 bound for Buenos Aires taxied across its path.

Footage captured by plane spotter Miguel Angel, and viewed on YouTube more than four million times, shows the apparent near-miss.

The pilot of the Boeing 767 from Russia is seen aborting the landing and climbing back up into the air as he becomes aware of what was about to happen.

The pilot reportedly circled back after this "go-around" manoeuvre and landed safely on the runway shortly afterwards.

Spanish aviation authorities have denied passengers were in danger at any point and told El Mundo newspaper there had been enough space for the Russian plane to make a safe landing.

The distance between the start of the runway and the point where the A340 crossed it is about one kilometre.