• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Planes Get Too Close for Comfort on LAX Runway

Posted on: Friday, 8 July 2005, 15:00 CDT

A commuter airplane taking off from Los Angeles International Airport had to stop abruptly and steer onto a taxiway last week after another airplane came too close to its runway, officials said Thursday.

The incident marks the fifth time in recent weeks that airplanes have come too close to each other at the airport. It happened in almost the exact same place as two of those earlier close calls.

The planes involved in the latest incident were still more than 3,000 feet apart when air traffic controllers noticed the problem. "There was almost no chance that anyone was in any danger," said Donn Walker, a spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration.

One of those planes was on its way to the terminal after arriving from Salt Lake City on July 1. Its path took it across an active runway, and it was supposed to stop and wait for instructions to cross.

But it kept rolling, and its nose came "way too close" to the runway before it stopped, Walker said.

The other plane was leaving for San Diego and had already started rolling down that same runway.

An air traffic controller "very forcibly" ordered the pilot to abort the takeoff, said Michael Foote, who represents the National Air Traffic Controllers Association at LAX.

The airport had three such close calls last month, and one in late May. The incident last week raises the total to five, the same number LAX had all of last year.

Four of this year's incidents happened on the south runways. Airport officials want to build a taxiway between those runways to help curb such close calls as part of a multibillion-dollar modernization plan.

Source: Daily Breeze

More News in this Category