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Monday June 19 1:25 AM ET

Jet, Turboprop Nearly Collided in New York -Report

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A US Airways (NYSE:U - news) Shuttle jetliner and a corporate turboprop missed colliding by just 100 to 300 feet (30 to 91 meters) at a runway intersection at New York's La Guardia Airport on June 12, the Washington Post reported on Monday.

The near-collision occurred when an air traffic controller cleared the turboprop to take off as the jetliner touched down to land, the Post quoted the Federal Aviation Administration as saying.

It was the third serious near-collision within two years at the busy New York airport that controllers failed to report to FAA headquarters in Washington.

Two of those near-collisions, the one on June 12 and another in late 1998, involved the same controller, sources close to the investigation told the Post. The National Transportation Safety Board, which has expressed concern about such so-called runway incursions, launched an investigation, the Post said.

The board last Tuesday recommended new air traffic procedures to combat near misses on the runways of U.S. airports, noting that there were at least 320 runway incursions reported in 1999, an increase of more than 70 percent from 1993.

The FAA is due to open a summit conference on the issue later this month.

The FAA learned of the latest incident on Thursday after the US Airways pilot filed a ``near midair collision'' report, an FAA spokesman told the Post.

``We are still investigating this,'' the spokesman said. ''We take every episode like this extremely seriously.''

Under FAA rules, controllers must report operational errors within three hours. Incidents are considered ``operational errors'' if the controller is at fault and ``pilot deviations'' if the pilot makes the error.

The spokesman would not say whether the controller was removed from service, but it is FAA policy to ``decertify'' and retrain a controller involved in an operational error, the Post said.

The controller, who was not identified, was decertified and retrained, sources told the Post, after a similar incident on Dec. 2, 1998, in which a US Airways Boeing 737 was cleared to land on a runway already occupied by a King Air twin turboprop. The 737 landed after going directly over the turboprop in that case, missing it by an estimated 50 feet (15 meters).

Investigative sources said the latest incident took place at 12:18 a.m. June 12. The US Airways Airbus A320 was cleared to land from the southwest on Runway 4 while a King Air turboprop was told to taxi into position and hold on Runway 31, preparing to take off to the northwest. The two runways intersect near the north end of the airport property.

As the A320 touched down, sources said, the controller cleared the turboprop to take off, the Post reported. Sources did not know the A320's flight origination.

The A320 rolled through the Runway 31 intersection just as the King Air flashed overhead. The A320 pilot estimated to investigators that the turboprop missed his plane by 100 feet (30 meters). Investigative sources said radar data, now being analyzed, may show that the gap was as wide as 300 feet (91 meters).

-- Rachel Gibson (rgibson@hotmail.com), June 19, 2000