Close Call Our Fault, Admiral Says

A Navy admiral Wednesday acknowledged responsibility for the close encounter earlier this month between an F-16 fighter jet and a civilian airliner off the coast of New Jersey, telling a House subcommittee that the military’s air traffic controller had not followed procedures.

Rear Adm. Dennis McGinn, in charge of the air traffic control center in Virginia Beach, Va., that handles the military training area off New Jersey, said of the controller: “His procedures and the phraseology he used over the radio in talking to the F-16 aircraft were not strictly in accordance with accepted procedures.”