The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating an incident Thursday at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport in which two planes flew too near to each other.
At their closest point, they were less than seven-tenths of a mile apart horizontally and 400 feet vertically from colliding.
The skies were clear Thursday morning as an American Airlines Super 80 and a United Express regional jet were cleared for takeoff.
The United Express plane mistakenly turned southeast toward the American plane, which was heading south over Irving.
An air traffic controller saw the problem and instructed the United plane to turn west immediately.
The FAA is investigating whether the regional jet pilots mistakenly put the wrong departure procedure into the cockpit's computer system.
It's unclear how many people were on the flights. The American plane could have held about 150 people and the regional jet about 70. The passengers on both planes apparently were unaware of the situation.
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