Norway to Investigate Near Mid-Air Collision

STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) _ Norway's aviation authorities said Sunday they would launch an investigation after air traffic controllers failed to notice that two commercial airliners were on a collision course.

A Scandinavian Airlines Airbus A330 with 255 passengers and a crew of 13 onboard and a Fokker 70 from the Dutch carrier KLM with 76 passengers and four crew came dangerously close to each other Saturday morning, aviation authority communications director Ove Narvesen said.

''The two planes were flying on a collision course over southern Norway at an altitude of 10,300 meters (34,000 feet) when both jets' collision avoidance systems noted that an oncoming aircraft was too close and the pilots could take evasive action,'' Narvesen said.

He said he could not confirm a report in the Norwegian newspaper Verdens Gang that the aircraft were within 40 seconds of colliding, saying only that it was a ''serious incident.''

The collision avoidance system is normally triggered when another aircraft is within a distance of about 8 kilometers (5 miles), Narvesen said.

The Airbus was on its way from Copenhagen, Denmark, to Washington, D.C. and the Fokker from Trondheim in Norway to the Dutch city of Amsterdam when the incident occurred.

No one was injured, Narvesen said.

In July 2002, 71 people were killed when two planes collided over southern Germany.

The air traffic controller on that day gave only 44 seconds of warning to the planes that they were getting too close, then gave one plane orders that contradicted the collision avoidance system. Both planes descended and smashed into each other.