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Thursday September 7 10:03 PM ET

United 757, Military Jet Nearly Collide Over Calif.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A United Airlines pilot avoided a mid-air collision over Los Angeles International Airport on Thursday by maneuvering his Boeing 757 jet with 173 people on board out of the path of a stealth F-17 fighter, federal aviation and airline officials said.

The pilot of Boston-bound United Flight 174 descended to avoid colliding with the military jet after receiving an alarm from on-board anti-collision equipment, said Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) spokesman Eliot Brenner.

He said the pilot had estimated the distance between his aircraft and the F-17 fighter as 500 feet vertically and 6/10ths of a mile horizontally.

Near airports, aircraft must normally keep at a distance of three miles. Outside the airport zone, that distance widens to five miles, Brenner said.

``United Flight 174, a Boeing 757 coming out of Los Angeles, reported that the aircraft had a close call with ... an aircraft that the pilot reported to us as a stealth fighter,'' Brenner said.

``The pilot got the warning in the cockpit. He was climbing and then descended a few hundred feet. He then reported that the Air Force plane passed 500 feet above him,'' Brenner said, lauding the pilot's handling of the situation.

Most of the air space above the Los Angeles airport is under FAA control, he said. The FAA was reviewing the F-17's flight plans, and the Air Force was cooperating fully.

``The equipment on the United plane worked exactly as designed and the pilot did the right thing,'' Brenner said.

He said the FAA had confirmed that the F-17 was based at a U.S. Air Force test and evaluation facility at Palmdale, Ca.

The United pilot continued on to his destination without further incident and informed federal authorities about the incident on his arrival, Brenner said, adding that the delayed report was standard procedure in such cases.

Chris Nardella, a spokeswoman for United, which is owned by UAL Corp, said the plane was carrying 166 passengers and seven crew members.

The FAA said the incident happened at 8:43 a.m. PDT, just moments after the flight took off in Los Angeles at 8:38 a.m. The plane landed safely in Boston.

FAA spokesman Jerry Snyder said the Boeing 757 was climbing to cruising altitude and was at 10,800 feet when the pilot told officials he was in a direct path with a ``stealth type military aircraft.''

Nardella said the Boeing 757 had been cleared to climb to 15,000 feet when on-board equipment detected an approaching aircraft and advised the crew to level off and allow the F-17 to pass overhead.

A second United spokesman said passengers might not have noticed anything was wrong.

The FAA and United have each launched an investigation, and officials at the National Transportation Safety Board, which investigates air traffic control problems, said they were also looking into the matter.

U.S. Air Force officials had no immediate information or comment on the incident.

-- Rachel Gibson (rgibson@hotmail.com), September 07, 2000

Answers

Remember, early in the year when on two separate days there were three small plane crashes--all directly over airports?

This sounds suspiciously similar to me, an air traffic control problem all the way.

-- Wayward (wayward@webtv.net), September 07, 2000.