Seconds from disaster: The terrifying growth of 'runway incursions'

In early September last year, a potential disaster was brewing at Toronto’s Pearson airport.

An Air Canada Airbus jet carrying 122 passengers and five crew was accelerating into its “takeoff roll” as, on a nearby runway, a Bombardier plane on a test run was taxiing past the “hold-short line” designed to avoid on-ground collisions.

Air-traffic controllers issued one, then another “urgent” order to stop and the Bombardier finally came to a halt. But by that time its nose was protruding...