U.S. Officials Investigate Third Near Accident at O'Hare Airport

March 30, 2006
The latest incident involved two commercial planes preparing to take off on crisscrossing runways Sunday.

CHICAGO_Federal officials are investigating a third close call in less than a week involving planes at O'Hare International Airport.

On March 21, two planes were mistakenly instructed to take off at the same time on crisscrossing runways. Two days later, a plane was sent to taxi across a runway where another plane had already started its take-off roll.

The National Transportation Safety Board, which typically responds to fatal accidents, considered both significant enough to dispatch investigators to O'Hare.

The latest incident involved two commercial planes preparing to take off on crisscrossing runways Sunday.

An Airbus A320 plane had been cleared for takeoff but was told to abort four seconds later because another plane had been readying for takeoff on an intersecting runway, the Federal Aviation Administration said. FAA officials said Tuesday they were trying to determine whether the two planes got closer than allowed under federal rules.

Before last week, there had been four reported runway incursions at O'Hare in 2006, all ruled controller errors.

Last year, seven incursions were reported out of 972,246 flights, the FAA said. Five were caused by controller errors, one by pilot error and one from an errant vehicle.