Owner of Wrecked Cargo Planes Blames Air Traffic Control for Crash

Jan. 26, 2007
>"Both aircraft were operating in controlled areas under explicit instructions of air traffic control," according to a statement by Freight Runners Express.

The company that owned two small cargo planes that collided and burned on an airport taxiway blamed air traffic control Thursday for the accident.

Neither pilot was seriously hurt, despite a fireball that erupted Wednesday at General Mitchell International Airport when one of the twin-engine planes ruptured the other's wingtip fuel tank.

"Both aircraft were operating in controlled areas under explicit instructions of air traffic control," according to a statement by Freight Runners Express Inc. of Milwaukee.

Federal officials declined to respond, while investigators review the accident bewteen a Beech 99 and a Cessna 402.

Freight Runners takes cargo into Milwaukee to be shipped via United Parcel Service.

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