NATION IN BRIEF : NATIONWIDE : Jetliner Shows Off Avoidance System

A jetliner full of passengers flew intentionally too close to a small plane near Washington, D.C., in a demonstration of the first collision-avoidance system to be approved for a commercial airliner fleet. The pilots showed off the system with a series of maneuvers between the small plane and the Boeing 737-400, which was carrying industry and government officials and several reporters and photographers. In a change that the airline industry says will cost it nearly $1 billion, airlines must install the Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance System in all their large jets before the end of 1993. The system gives the pilot a miniature air traffic control system in the sky, showing aircraft within a 40-mile radius.