The State - News from April 25, 1989

The National Transportation Safety Board will consider today possible changes in air traffic control for Orange County’s John Wayne Airport after investigations of several incidents in which planes flew too close to each other. On Feb. 13, the Federal Aviation Administration said, a British Airways jumbo jet and an American Airlines jetliner came within 1.9 miles of each other at 9,000 feet--a “loss of standard separation.” The FAA does not consider that a near collision but says the planes should have been at least three miles apart horizontally and 1,000 feet apart vertically. The investigation also covered seven other operational errors during the past year at the Coast Terminal Radar Approach Control Facility at John Wayne.