WASHINGTON :Error caused first lady's plane to abort landing

WASHINGTON :Error caused first lady's plane to abort landing
A plane carrying first lady Michelle Obama came perilously close to a massive military cargo jet because of an air traffic controller's error and had to abort a landing at Andrews Air Force Base, the Washington Post reported on Tuesday. Unnamed federal officials told the Post that controllers at the air base in Maryland feared the cargo jet would not clear the runway in time.

The FAA said that the Boeing 737, one of the fleet of presidential passenger jets, came within three miles of the military plane during the Monday evening flight, when a minimum separation of five miles is required to avoid dangerous wake turbulence.

FAA officials said they were investigating the incident as a possible error by controllers at a regional radar facility in Warrenton, Va.

The Federal Aviation Administration is already dealing with the fallout from several recent high profile incidents of air traffic controllers sleeping, or watching a movie on the job.

In one case, the pilot of a plane transporting a critically ill passenger was unable to raise the sole controller working at 2 a.m. in the tower of the Reno-Tahoe International Airport in Nevada.

Michelle Obama was returning from appearances in New York with Jill Biden when the mishap occurred. The plane was on its final approach to Andrews, the Post reported