3 Close Calls in Southland Skies Involve Airliners, Small Planes

Air safety officials said Tuesday there were three close calls Sunday in which Orange County air traffic controllers alerted pilots to avoid nearby aircraft.

The latest confirmed incident, according to the National Transportation Safety Board, involved an American Airlines MD-80 plane descending toward John Wayne Airport.

The American Airlines jet, flying from the Dallas-Ft. Worth area with an unknown number of passengers, was at an altitude of about 4,500 feet and 12 miles north of El Toro when air traffic controllers alerted the jet’s crew that a single-engine Cessna 172 was in front of and below the jet, said Gary Mucho, regional manager of the NTSB.

Both aircraft were heading basically in the same westerly direction, toward John Wayne Airport, he said.

An air traffic controller based at the Coast Terminal Radar Approach Control facility in El Toro alerted the jetliner pilot in time for the plane to take evasive action. The pilot of the Cessna filed a “near-miss” report with the Federal Aviation Administration. Officials declined to identify the pilot or the controller.

The incident occured about two hours after an Air New Zealand Boeing 747 approaching Los Angeles International Airport had to swerve sharply to avoid another small plane. Several people on the jet were injured. That incident is still under investigation, Mucho said.

In another incident, a coastal approach controller warned the pilot of an America West plane in time to avoid a collision with another Cessna near John Wayne Airport. However, air safety officials said the incident is not officially classified as a “near miss” because neither pilot reported it to the FAA.