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An El-Al passenger jet bound for New York nearly collided with an Air France airliner over the skies of Belgrade on Monday, Channel 2 revealed on Tuesday evening. According to the report, the Serbian air controller made a mistake and instructed the Air France airplane to fly on a route already used by the El Al plane, so that the jets were on a collision course. The two planes were about to crash in midair, but emergency alarms alerted both pilots and the El-Al plane changed course at the last minute, when the distance between the aircraft was only 300...

Russian, Delta Jets Nearly Collide Over Caribbean WASHINGTON (AP) ― Federal authorities say two airliners were a minute away from colliding when they turned away from each other over the Caribbean this week. The National Transportation Safety Board says the Delta Air Lines flight and a Russian-registered passenger jet were heading toward each other north of Puerto Rico on Thursday when cockpit alarms went off. In a statement Friday, the NTSB says the pilot of the Russian plane -- a Transaero Boeing 737 -- descended 200 to 300 feet to avoid Delta Flight 485. The planes were 33,000 feet over...

No hobby clubs had requested or been granted clearance to launch high-powered model rockets on Memorial Day when a Continental Airlines pilot reported seeing such an object zoom past his cockpit window, authorities said Tuesday. The FBI and Federal Aviation Administration continued to review the radar history of Flight 1544, which departed with 148 passengers from George Bush Intercontinental Airport at 10:17 a.m. Monday. The flight's crew, en route to Cleveland, Ohio, spotted an object with a white vapor trail about eight miles northeast of Houston's airport. While the data is still under review, FBI spokesman Rich Kolko of Washington,...

Some air traffic controllers say they believe American Airlines is attempting to save fuel at the expense of safety, and risking the possibility of a runway collision. The concerns stem from a near miss on a runway at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport in early April that is under investigation by the Federal Aviation Administration. It happened as American Airlines mechanics were towing a Boeing 777 to a maintenance hangar using a high-speed tug. Air traffic controllers told the mechanics to stop short of a runway, but they did not stop in time and pulled the jumbo jet into the path...

ATLANTA — The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating a near-collision of two airplanes on the runway at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport on Friday. Investigators believe an Atlantic Southeast Airlines flight bound for Greensboro, N.C., ignored orders from the control tower to stop its taxi across the runway, coming within seconds of running into a Mexico-bound Delta Air Lines Inc. jet, FAA spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen said. The ASA pilot acknowledged the orders and repeated them back to controllers in the tower but did not stop, Bergen said. -snip-

A C-130 aircraft carrying an Alabama senator and congressman was fired on this evening as it was flying from Baghdad to Amman, Jordan. The airplane was carrying Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., and Rep. Bud Cramer, D-Huntsville, and two other senators. Three rockets were shot at the plane and were "near misses," Shelby said in a telephone interview. He said the pilot took evasive maneuvers to avoid the rockets. The plane landed safely in Amman at about 4 p.m. central.

L.A. INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT, Aug. 17, 2007 (KABC-TV) - A close call at LAX could have had disastrous consequences. Airport officials are reporting two planes came within 200 feet -- perhaps as little as 50 feet -- on the airport runways. There have been near collisions at LAX before, but this one was very close. The FAA says it appears that both the air traffic controller and the pilot of the plane landing made mistakes. The incidents happened around 1 p.m. Thursday afternoon. Officials say a WestJet Boeing 737 coming in from Canada was landing. The plane seats around 132 passengers....

WASHINGTON, Sept. 28 - An America West passenger jet taking off from Las Vegas missed hitting an Air Canada jet by about 100 feet last Thursday night, according to a preliminary report, because a controller in the tower confused two planes and issued conflicting instructions. The controller has been taken off duty and sent for more training, according to the Federal Aviation Administration, and the episode is under investigation. America West Flight 539, departing for Cleveland, was cleared for takeoff about 11 p.m. local time on Runway 25 Right. At the same time, Air Canada Flight 593 had landed on...

For the next few days backyard astronomers can see for themselves the long lost asteroid Hermes. Science@NASA -- It's dogma now: an asteroid hit Earth 65 million years ago and wiped out the dinosaurs. But in 1980 when scientists Walter and Luis Alvarez first suggested the idea to a gathering at the American Association for Advancement of Sciences, their listeners were skeptical. Asteroids hitting Earth? Wiping out species? It seemed incredible. At that very moment, unknown to the audience, an asteroid named Hermes halfway between Mars and Jupiter was beginning a long plunge toward our planet. Six months later it...

You can probably guess from the title...I had a close encounter with a deer last night. Found out just how good my anti-lock brakes work. Left some black stripes on the pavement. Missed the deer- or should I say, it missed me - as I was stomped on the breaks and turned away from it, it came towards the car.