Nation IN BRIEF : NORTH CAROLINA : Controller Helps Avert Midair Crash

A midair collision between a USAir passenger jet and a single-engine airplane was averted when a controller radioed the USAir pilot to climb and turn as both planes came within 180 feet of each other, an air traffic official said. The close call between the Cessna 182 and the DC-9 came after the smaller plane took off the wrong way, said Eric Harrell, air traffic control tower manager at North Carolina’s Charlotte-Douglas International Airport. A pilot of another USAir plane on the ground saw the smaller plane make the wrong turn and radioed the controller about the problem. The Federal Aviation Administration was investigating the incident.