Secular Café: Three planes just miss crash at Reagan airport, DC

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Three planes just miss crash at Reagan airport, DC Aug 3rd 2012, 09:14 http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012...-investigation Quote: Civil air authorities said investigators are looking into an incident in which three commuter jets narrowly avoided a mid-air collision near the US capital... ...First reported by the Washington Post, the incident was reportedly caused by confused air traffic controllers who launched two outbound flights directly at another aircraft that was preparing to land. Authorities later denied that the planes were on a direct collision course. "At no point were the three aircraft on a head-to-head course," FAA chairman Michael Huerta said during a press conference. The agency added that a provisional inquiry had found that the landing plane, which had taken off from Portland, Maine, came within 500 vertical feet and 1.7 lateral miles of one of the departing passenger jets... ...According to the Post, two of the planes were within 12 seconds of crashing into each other. Having realised their mistake, the tower ordered an incoming pilot to take an abrupt turn to avoid impact... ...The near-miss comes a year after two passenger planes were forced to land without help from the tower at the same airport, after the lone air traffic controller on duty fell asleep.

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