WASHINGTON — Controller error was likely responsible for the near-collision of a private twin-engine plane and a US Airways jetliner at Washington Reagan National Airport on May 14, the Washington Post said Monday, citing a Federal Aviation Administration investigation.
The Post said a National tower controller cleared a Piper PA-27 to land on one runway, then mistakenly gave a US Airways Boeing 737 clearance to take off on an intersecting runway.
Nineteen seconds later, the controller caught the error and realized the two planes could meet at the intersection. The controller ordered the Piper pilot to abort his landing. The pilot, Ronald Zborowski of Eighty Four, Pa., told the paper that the controller was using the wrong call sign for his plane and he did not realize at first that the controller was talking to him.