US NTSB to investigate close call between Delta plane, military jets

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board said on Monday it will investigate a close call between a Delta Air Lines plane and a group of Air Force jets near Reagan Washington National Airport last week.

The Delta Airbus A319 received a cockpit collision warning alert that another aircraft was nearby, and controllers issued corrective instructions to both aircraft. The Delta flight had been cleared to depart as four U.S. Air Force T-38 Talons were inbound to nearby Arlington National Cemetery for a flyover.

The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration said on Friday it would investigate the incident, which occurred earlier that day.

It followed a mid-air collision on January 29 near the same airport involving a passenger jet and a U.S. Army helicopter, which killed 67 people in the first deadly U.S. passenger airline crash in 16 years.

A Delta spokesman on Monday reiterated that the carrier would fully cooperate with the investigations, and that its flight crew had followed procedures to maneuver the aircraft as instructed.

A series of troubling near-miss incidents over the past two years has raised concerns about U.S. aviation safety and the strain on understaffed air traffic control operations.

(Reporting by David Shepardson; Additional reporting by Allison Lampert; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Paul Simao)