American Flight From New York Came Close to Colliding



By Angela Greiling Keane - Feb 4, 2011 3:08 PM MT

An AMR Corp. American Airlines jet almost collided with two U.S. Air Force planes after taking off from New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport last month, U.S. transportation safety investigators said.


The American Boeing Co. 777-200 plane was about 80 miles southeast of New York, en route to Sao Paulo, when it came within a mile of two Air Force C-17s that were flying toward McGuire Air Force Base in New Jersey, the National Transportation Safety Board said today in an e-mailed statement. The board, which investigates transportation accidents, said the planes came within a mile of each other.


Air traffic controllers directing each plane received electronic alerts about the potential collision and directed the aircraft away, the board said. The American crew also responded to a cockpit collision avoidance system alert during the Jan. 20 incident.


The safety board, under a U.S. regulation that took effect last year, is notified every time airplanes’ traffic and collision avoidance systems, or TCAS, are put into action, Bridget Serchak, an NTSB spokeswoman, said.
“We are aware that the NTSB is investigating the matter,” said Andrea Huguely, a spokeswoman for American, based in Fort Worth, Texas.


To contact the reporter on this story: Angela Greiling Keane in Washington at agreilingkea@bloomberg.net






To contact the editor responsible for this story: Bernard Kohn at bkohn2@bloomberg.net