D/FW NEAR MISS

David Schechter reports

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DALLAS — Two passenger planes packed with holiday travelers nearly collided while over the Dallas/Forth Worth International Airport last Christmas.

While the error was caused by an air traffic controller, News 8 learned FAA managers tried to cover up the mistake and blame it on a pilot. Managers also failed to immediately report the incident, which is required.

Between both the American Flight 1833 and American Eagle 788, there were as many as 200 passengers waiting to land. On their approach, the pilot of the American Airlines jet was surprised by an American Eagle regional jet (RJ).

"We've got an RJ that's crossing our nose right now," said the AA pilot.

"American 1833, roger," a tower controller replied. "Yeah, I just saw that too. Standby."

"Yeah, that's closer than we would like," the AA pilot said.

"American 1833, maintain visual separation from the RJ," the controller responded. "I have no idea where he's going. He just popped up there coming over the top of you."

"Roger that," the pilot said. "We've got him visual. That's not good."

The planes were six-tenths of a mile apart and closing in at a combined speed of 400 mph. One plane should have been at least 1,000 feet above the other. The radar screen showed them at exactly the same altitude.

"It seems hard to reach any conclusion other than it was an operational error,” said Sid Huston, a retired FAA traffic controller and instructor.

Operational error means a radar controller made a mistake. In his case, as the planes approached the airport, the controller told the American Eagle jet to stay in visual contact with the American jet. However, the controller failed to tell the American Eagle pilot the American jet was moving north.

"It would've changed his whole perspective as to where he should've been looking for the airplane," Huston said.

Because of the mistake, the American Eagle pilot began tracking the wrong plane. The American plane then flew behind American Eagle making it impossible to see until the planes nearly collided as they approached the runways.

"Yeah, I'm not sure what happened there American 1833," the tower controller said. "We're looking into that."

While a FAA manager did look into it, he did not remove the controller from duty as required. He also didn't immediately file a safety report as required.  Instead, he concluded it was not an "operational error" by his controller. He blamed the pilot from deviating from his flight plan.

"The controller was at fault for the error,” Huston said.

Congressman Michael Burgess agrees. The airport is in his district and he’s been voicing similar safety concerns for five years. 

"When that incident was not recorded as an operational error but was recorded as a pilot deviation and then went away we lost a valuable opportunity for corrective activity," Burgess said.

The controller was eventually charged with an error, but sources said that didn't happen until the airlines started asking questions.

The way the near-miss was handled is consistent with the findings of a recent federal investigation. It concluded FAA managers at D/FW Airport show a consistent disregard for public safety by intentionally misclassifying the mistakes of their controllers.

E-mail dschechter@wfaa.com