WASHINGTON - Federal safety officials Tuesday used a chilling animation of a near-collision at Denver International Airport to boost calls for tougher ways to prevent potentially deadly runway incursions.

The National Transportation Safety Board focused on a Jan. 5 incident on a runway at DIA as part of a safety hearing on the 30th anniversary of the deadliest accident in aviation history.

On March 27, 1977, two 747s collided on a runway in the Canary Islands, killing 583 people.

The co-pilot of one of the planes involved in the crash, Capt. Robert Bragg, described in painful detail what happened that day when a KLM passenger jet taking off struck a Pan Am plane on the same runway, shearing off the cockpit where Bragg was sitting.

Bragg ducked when he saw the oncoming plane and fell from the cockpit to the ground. He said he didn't think an accident like that could happen again today. But NTSB officials are not so sure, and they pointed to a recent near-collision at DIA to show how technology still has not made the system fail-safe.

In that incident, a Frontier jet with 45 passengers and five crew members was about to make its morning landing when the pilot noticed that a smaller Key Lime Air Metroliner had strayed into the runway. The two airplanes missed colliding by about 50 feet, officials said.

The NTSB played a computer animation showing just how close a call it was, with the alert Frontier pilot pulling away at the last second.

"There is nothing wrong with tremendous airmanship being demonstrated, but it's best to keep pilots out of that situation," said NTSB Chairman Mark Rosenker.

Rosenker said he was frustrated and disappointed that the Federal Aviation Administration had not moved more quickly to implement technology to immediately warn pilots when other aircraft or ground vehicles are on runways they are using.

"I have said it before and will say it again: Luck should not be a part of the safety equation," Rosenker said.

Tests are under way in Dallas- Fort Worth and San Diego on a system that uses lights in runway pavement that glow red, telling pilots to halt, when a plane or vehicle is detected on a nearby runway, Bloomberg News reported. The FAA may decide this year to seek funds from Congress to add the lighting system at as many as 44 large airfields.

"I'm encouraged," Rosenker said, according to Bloomberg. "They believe they have found something which potentially can begin the process of reducing or eliminating these runway incursions."

In the first 2 1/2 months of 2007, there were 163 runway incursions, compared with 138 at the same period last year. The Denver near-collision is considered one of the most serious in the country.

Outside the hearing this morning, various vendors had set up booths to sell high-tech equipment they say would provide early warnings about runway incursions. The number of runway incursions has hovered at just over 300 per year at airports nationally for the past five years.

sprengelmeyerm@shns.com or 202-408-2729