Air Canada 'near miss' costs official his job

LAS VEGAS (AP) — A veteran air traffic controller was stripped of his job at McCarran International Airport while authorities investigate a runway near-miss involving two commercial airliners, one of them an Air Canada flight from Toronto, officials said today.

The planes did not touch in the Sept. 22 incident, and no one was hurt.

About 30 metres separated the planes in what the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration characterized on Wednesday as a runway incursion. Airport director Randall Walker called it a “near-miss.”

The FAA said it did not appear the pilots of America West Flight 539 to Cleveland and Air Canada Flight 593 from Toronto had to take evasive action.

The controller, whose name was not released, was faulted for allowing the Air Canada jet, which had just landed, to taxi across a runway where the America West jet was taking off. The America West jet had got high enough in the air to miss the taxiing jet.

The controller was removed from duty immediately after the incident and decertified, FAA spokesman Donn Walker said. He could be recertified as a controller if he undergoes remedial training, the spokesman said.

The controller had more than 10 years of experience at McCarran, the sixth-busiest airport in the United States.

Officials did not immediately know how many passengers or crew were on each plane. The America West flight was an Airbus A320 capable of carrying 150 passengers. The Air Canada flight was an Airbus A319 with seating for 120 passengers.

Those flight numbers must have become mixed up at some point.