Milwaukee airport 2nd after O'Hare in close calls

MILWAUKEE - Data from the Federal Aviation Administration indicates there have been dozens of close calls on airport runways in Wisconsin throughout the past 13 years.

A report by Gannett Wisconsin Media determined pilots have averted disaster 272 times at 12 of the state's airports, an average of about 20 times each year, since October 2001. Some of the causes include pilot miscues, flawed communication with air traffic control and errant vehicles driving down a runway.

The busiest airport in Wisconsin, General Mitchell International Airport in Milwaukee, saw the most incidents in that time period, with 114. That number is the second highest in the Midwest, behind O'Hare International Airport in Chicago, which had 205 close calls on the runway.