=20 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- This article was sent to you by someone who found it on SFGate. The original article can be found on SFGate.com here: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=3D/news/archive/2004/07/28/s= tate2030EDT0161.DTL --------------------------------------------------------------------- Wednesday, July 28, 2004 (AP) Two LAX runway incidents last week called a fluke (07-28) 17:30 PDT LOS ANGELES (AP) -- A record seven-month runway safety streak at Los Angeles International Airport ended last week when planes crossed the path of aircraft landing or taking off on two occasions in four days, officials said. No accidents resulted. The pilot of a small plane got confused and blundered across two runways, including one on which a jet was landing, at 8:04 p.m. on July 21. Four days later, there was another close call involving commercial jetliners. On July 21, the pilot of a six-seat Cessna 210 accurately read back a controller's instructions but then crossed both southern runways toward the airfield's west end without permission, said Donn Walker, spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration. An American Airlines MD-80 had just landed from the east on the southernmost runway. At 9:30 p.m. on July 25, an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 landed on the airport's northernmost runway and exited as instructed on a taxiway toward the airfield's west end, but it stopped too close to the inner runway on which a Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 had been cleared for takeoff, Walker said. The Southwest pilot aborted his takeoff when he saw the other jet had encroached onto the runway, Walker said. The FAA defines a runway incursion as occurring when a plane or vehicle crosses a runway when an aircraft is landing or taking off. The FAA blamed last week's incursions on pilot error, leaving intact a 26-month streak during which air traffic controllers handled about 1.5 million planes without making a mistake that led to aircraft getting too close to each other. "Given the improvements we've seen here, you have to believe this was ju= st a fluke that we had two in one week," Walker said. ` ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright 2004 AP