The two airplanes almost collided over San Juan. Minutes before, Flight 309 announced that they were just past
Dorado Airport, where they would have had to report because they were flying under
visual flight rules, and were over
Levittown instead. Pilot Cannon could not contact Dorado Airport, because his airplane's approach frequency was inoperative (????); he phoned the local air controllers from his airplane instead. Eastern Flight 75's approach had begun over the
Atlantic Ocean; the airliner was flying on
instrument flight rules(IFR). At 18:41(6:41 PM), about 5 minutes before flight 309's crash, Cannon was advised as to the position of the Eastern L-1011, which San Juan controllers had observed go down to 3,000 feet and place itself directly behind flight 309, with about two minutes of distance separation between the two aircraft. Because of the difference of speed at which the two airplanes were coming, there was now a danger that the two airliners would collide. Pilot Cannon acknowledged having the Eastern L-1011 in sight. He was heard saying "Yeah, I got him" to San Juan control tower, referring to the Eastern jet. At 18:42(6:42 PM), the smaller aircraft was told by the controllers to head in a southeast direction at 130 degrees in order to let the Eastern airplane overpass the Air Caribbean one, at the same time the controllers warned the Air Caribbean plane about the possible effects of
wake turbulence. The Eastern Air Lines airplane landed safely at the airport, with no injuries reported among the crew and passengers on that aircraft. ==Aftermath==