Australia probes three near-misses at Sydney Airport

SYDNEY: Australia's transport authorities said on Friday (Aug 14) they were investigating what went wrong after three near-misses in less than two weeks at Sydney Airport, including two in one day.A Virgin Australia 737 had been cleared for take-off by air traffic control on Sunday morning when the crew saw a Qantas plane crossing the runway ahead of them, the country's transport safety investigator said.The crew brought the plane to a stop about a kilometre from the other aircraft, which had also been cleared to taxi across the runway.Earlier in the day, a Jetstar pilot was forced to apply the brakes suddenly to avoid crashing into a Qatar Airways jet. They came after two Qantas planes also avoided a collision on Jul 27 after they had been cleared for takeoff."I can reassure the travellin