OPS08IA011 · Learjet 60
Learjet 60 and American Eagle Embraer 145 · Incident: near midair/TCAS alert/loss of separation on approach
Event
- NTSB case
- OPS08IA011
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Incident
- InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
- Completed
- API-reported fatalities
- 0 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- Airline
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Aircraft 1 · Learjet 60
- Aircraft type
- Learjet 60
- Category
- Airplane
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- N252RP
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Augusta Regional At Bush Field (AGS), Augusta, GATo Chicago O'Hare International Airport (ORD), Chicago, IL
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Part 91: General Aviation
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- Approach · IFR missed approach
- Defining eventThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- Near midair/TCAS alert/loss of separation
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- None
Aircraft 2 · Embraer 145
- Aircraft type
- Embraer 145
- Category
- Airplane
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- N672AE
- Operator
- American Eagle
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Chicago O'Hare International Airport (KORD), Chicago, ILTo General Wayne A. Downing Peoria International Airport (PIA), Peoria, IL
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Part 121: Air Carrier
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- Initial climb
- Defining eventThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- Near midair/TCAS alert/loss of separation
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- None
Cause areas
- Personnel issues › Action/decision
- Personnel issues › Psychological
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
On July 21, 2008, at approximately 1247 p.m. central daylight time (CDT), an incident occurred at the Chicago O'Hare International Airport (KORD), Chicago, Illinois, involving American Eagle flight 4298, an Embraer Regional Jet 145 (E145), and N252RP, a Learjet 60 (LJ60). According to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the E145 was departing runway 32L and the LJ60 was landing runway 9R. The flight path for the arriving airplane passes over the flight path of the departing airplane from runway 32L. The ORD north local monitor for the north local controller observed the incident developing and instructed the north local controller to send the LJ60 around on runway 9R. The departing E-145 on runway 32L was instructed by the LC-10 controller to stay low on their departure.
At 2045 CDT, ORD facility management notified the Federal Aviation Administration that according to ground radar (ASDE-X) analysis and radar replay, the LJ60 passed 325 feet above and slightly behind the departing E145.
Probable cause
The LC-10 controller's failure to ensure the appropriate separation between two airplanes operating on runways where flight paths intersect.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record OPS08IA011
- Event ID
- 20080728X01118
- Case number
- OPS08IA011
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
Source notes (5)
- Unreviewed is an editorial label, not an investigation status. API-sourced is not report-checked or human-reviewed. Explicit event totals are used without summing aircraft injury tables; onboard allocation is withheld. Unknown values remain unknown. The operation category is mapped from the NTSB-reported FAR part and has not been reviewed.
- Filled from the NTSB case API where the bulk record had no value: investigation status, damage. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date, which is the same as the UTC date the NTSB stores.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 18237e9ffcab7427500c65075022a7f75632f37f9c1b6395e5d34c2bef2a33f0; retrieved 2026-09-13T18:13:50.164Z.
- Corrected after a review of the NTSB narrative, which states these values explicitly: destination, operator. Typo in city name; airport code PIA is General Wayne A. Downing Peoria International Airport, Peoria, IL. The NTSB narrative names the operator: "involving American Eagle flight 4298, an Embraer Regional Jet 145 (E145), and N252RP, a Learjet 60 (LJ60)"