Runway incursion - MIA
UPS freighter barely avoids crash on Florida runway
Thursday, February 28, 2008 20:12
MIAMI, Feb 28 - A UPS cargo jet had just throttled up for takeoff on Tuesday, when an American Eagle commuter plane with 36 passengers taxied into its path at Miami International Airport, authorities said.
Air traffic controllers immediately ordered the UPS Boeing 757 to halt, averting disaster, a spokesman for the National Air Traffic Controllers Association said.
Although the planes came within 4,000 feet of each other, it still was a close call, he said. He said the departing jet would have covered that distance in a matter of seconds if controllers hadn't seen the American Eagle turboprop errantly taxi onto the runway.