Air Transport

Latest in series of incidents at US airport initially classified be FAA as operational error

A Virgin Atlantic Airbus A340-600 and a SkyWest Airlines Embraer EMB-120 Brasilia came within 15m (50ft) laterally of colliding earlier this month at Los Angeles International airport due to a runway incursion.

The US Federal Aviation Administration is initially classifying the event as an operational error. It occurred on the evening of 6 May as the Virgin Atlantic aircraft landed on runway 24R and the SkyWest Brasilia apparently taxied too close to the runway on an intersecting taxiway, says the FAA.

The A340-600 was arriving from London Heathrow with 172 passengers and crew, while the Brasilia had just two pilots on board. An investigation is under way.

The airport has been the scene of other recent runway errors, including a close call last October between a SkyWest regional jet and a Gulfstream business jet, and a February 2006 near-miss between a SkyWest Brasilia and a Southwest Boeing 737.

In August 2004 an air traffic controller cleared an Asiana Boeing 747-400 to land on the same runway on which he had just directed a Southwest 737 to depart. The Asiana captain ultimately saw the 737 on the runway, initiating a go-around and passing within "several hundred feet" of the other aircraft, according to the FAA.