Two Jets Had Near Miss Over Dubuque

The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating a close call Tuesday night between an O'Hare Airport-bound regional jet and a Boeing 757 in the airspace above Dubuque, Iowa.

Skywest Flight 6861 to O'Hare and Northwest Airlines Flight 1225 to Denver came within 900 feet of each other vertically and 1.79 miles horizontally, said Jeff Richards, a representative for the Aurora-based air-traffic controllers who manage airspace in much of the Midwest.

At their speed, the two planes could have collided "within seconds" if both pilots had not taken evasive action when their on-board collision-avoidance systems were activated, said Richards, a spokesman for the air traffic controllers union at the Aurora facility.

Richards said the controller responsible for keeping proper separation between the aircraft was distracted by the testing of new equipment designed to help controllers with the sequencing of arriving aircraft. The FAA disputed that, saying the controller wasn't using the TMA equipment when the incident occurred.

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