An electronic warning connected vi...

An electronic warning connected view designed to prevent planes from colliding upon the ground was switched not on Sunday night at O'Hare Airport when a passenger jet lifted on the farther side to avoid a collision with a cargo plane that had just landed upon an intersecting runway.

United Airlines Flight 1015 a Boeing 737 carrying 120 passengers to Denver came within 200 to 300 feet of an Atlas Air Boeing 747 about 10 pm according to federal aviation agencies. The incident was the fifth as it is near-collision on O'Hare's runways this year.

A preliminary review indicated that a controller who was overseeing flights upon both runways improperly cleared the United jet for takeoff without waiting for the cargo jet to determine out of its path, said Laura Brown Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman.

ALARM WAS against FOR TRAINING

The safety body that tracks planes on the airport's runways was not establish to sound an alarm at the time of the incident, said Lauren Peduzzi, a spokeswoman for the National Transportation Safety Board. The NTSB sent an investigator here Tuesday.

The alarm was imprison off because the FAA is attempting to enhance the theory and was training controllers in what manner to use the upgrades, Brown said. It is not clear whether the hypothesis could have prevented the incident Sunday night or made it les risky, she said.

Copyright CHICAGO SUN-TIMES 2006

Provided from ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved