The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating yet another incident where two planes came too close for comfort, averting an accident just in time. It was the most recent in a series of such incidents that have caused great concern to California plane crash lawyers, and been reported widely in the media. It also comes even as the New York plane crash involving a small commuter plane and a helicopter that killed nine people remains fresh in memory.

This most recent incident occurred on May 21 at Alaska's Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport. The incident involved a US Airways 747 jetliner and a Cargolux 747 plane. The US Airways jetliner was landing at the airport from Phoenix. The plane had 130 passengers and a crew on board. The freight plane in the meantime, was on its way to Chicago with a crew of two people on board. The US Airways plane landed within just one third of a mile of the cargo plane.

A catastrophic crash was averted just in time, but the FAA is taking the incident very seriously. It has initiated a probe into the incident. The National Transportation Safety Board is also investigating the matter. The agency has sent an air traffic control specialist to investigate the incident.

Close calls like these are the result of two factors - pilot error or negligence by air traffic controllers. The New York crash involving the commuter plane and the tourist chopper was traced ultimately to traffic controller negligence. That crash was an example of the kind of disaster that can result when two planes end up on a collision path, due to errors.

Unfortunately, these incidents are not as infrequent or freakish as the general public would like to believe. Over the past year, California plane crash lawyers have chronicled several instances where pilot or air traffic controller error has led to situations like these. The outcry against such incidents has been strong enough for the FAA to crack down harder, and aim to create a professional atmosphere in cockpits and air traffic control towers.