A passenger jet taking off at O'Hare International Airport came within 90 meters (about 295 feet) of a cargo plane that had just landed, federal aviation officials said.
United Airlines Flight 1015 was able to fly over the Boeing 747 cargo plane, which was on an intersecting runway about 10 p.m. Sunday, and no injuries were reported, the FAA said in a written statement.
Controller error was to blame, the FAA statement said. Both the FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating the incident, known as a runway incursion.
The United flight was carrying 120 passengers and five crew members to Denver, said Brandon Borrman, a spokesman for the Elk Grove Village-based carrier.
So far this year, O'Hare, the nation's busiest airport, has had five reported runway incursions amid about 540,000 total flights, the FAA said. Last year, it had seven.
Wendy Abrams, a spokeswoman for the city's aviation department, says the incidents are rare, considering the airport handles roughly one million flights a year. "This is abnormal," she said.