Maybe there should be more stringent requirements, specifically against getting boffo in the air traffic control tower.

Upon take-off, United Airlines Flight 1015 found itself scraping belly against back of a cargo plane landing on the same track. The passenger flight, carrying 125 people, missed the cargo plane by only about 300 vertical feet, which the Federal Aviation Administration assures us is “way, way too close.”

Unbelievably, this is the fifth near-miss incident of mid-flight collisions predicated by daydreaming air traffic controllers this year alone. The most serious was a danger level C near-miss, with A being a hair’s breadth from a full on kablooie, we assume. Last year, there were seven, one of which was an A level threat.

As usual, the threat of terrorism is made to seem completely impotent by our own casual incompetency.

Traffic controller blamed for near miss at O’Hare [Chicago Sun Times]

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