Thu, Mar 30, 2006
Three Such Incidents In Less Than A Week
On the heels of two
close calls on the runways of Chicago's O'Hare International
Airport last week, comes word of a third such incident.
This time, it happened on Sunday... when an Airbus A320 was
cleared for take-off at about the same time another aircraft was
cleared to roll on an intersecting runway. The Airbus was ordered
to abort four seconds after it was cleared to go.
FAA spokesman Tony Molinaro told USA Today the two planes never
came less than within 1,100 feet of each other, although the agency
is checking to see if federal separation rules were violated.
This latest ground bungle at O'Hare comes as federal
investigators are still looking into two similar events that
happened last week.
On March 21st, a Lufthansa aircraft and a Delta jet were cleared
to roll on intersecting runways at the same time. They came within
100 feet of each other before the flight crews caught on and
aborted. The FAA says that was the closest near-miss at a major US
airport in years.
Then, just two days later... a United Airlines flight and a Ted
aircraft almost collided when one was cleared to cross the active
as the other was on its takeoff roll.
That makes seven runway incursions at O'Hare since the first of
the year... the same number of incursions at the airport in all of
2005. Controller error was cited in the other four incidents that
happened earlier this year.
The situation is considered so serious that both the FAA and the
NTSB are investigating.
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