Controller Blamed for Near Collision at Airport

An air traffic controller gave a helicopter takeoff clearance that allowed it to take a possible collision course with an Eastern Airlines Boeing 727, forcing the jetliner to abort its takeoff and skid to a stop within 40 yards of the Potomac River, federal officials said Wednesday.

The controller has been restricted to administrative duties and must be recertified to direct air traffic, the Federal Aviation Administration said. None of the 182 persons aboard the plane were injured in the Tuesday evening incident at National Airport outside Washington.

Tapes Reviewed

National Transportation Safety Board investigators, who have examined tapes of communications between the airport tower and the helicopter, said the controller thought she had given the helicopter pilot clearance to depart in a direction away from the runway being used by the Eastern jet.

But the tapes showed that the pilot received a general departure clearance--and no specific instructions to avoid that runway--for a route that normally would take him across the runway, NTSB spokesman Bill Bush said.

“She believed she had given a specific northwest instruction, but the tapes don’t indicate that she did,” Bush said. The helicopter was departing from a general aviation section of the airport to the west of the main north-south runway used by the jet.

The unidentified controller has been on the job since 1978. She was involved in the August, 1981, illegal strike and was among those fired by the government and reinstated two years later.

The pilot of the Eastern jet--the 5 p.m. shuttle from National to New York’s La Guardia Airport--aborted takeoff when he saw the helicopter and skidded to a safe stop in a grassy area beyond the runway.

Collision Feared

Investigators have not determined how close the plane and helicopter came to each other, but the Eastern pilot, J.C. Goachee, told authorities he feared a collision with the helicopter, officials said.

Jesse Hadaway, the helicopter pilot, who works for Whirlybird Inc. of Baltimore, said he noticed the jetliner taking off and veered away from the main runway before getting into its path.

“I never crossed the path of the jetliner at any time,” he said in an interview with WDVM-TV in Washington. “We were separated by at least 150 or so feet.”

“Both pilots did take evasive action, and that prevented the collision,” Hadaway added.