An airplane hurtling down a runway at Logan Airport yesterday morning narrowly averted colliding with a construction vehicle that strayed into an unauthorized area, triggering a federal investigation and halting all construction at one of the country’s busiest airports.

The incident, classified as the most serious type of runway incursion short of a collision, occurred at 6:36 a.m. and terrified air traffic controllers, who saw the vehicle dangerously close to the plane’s wing shortly after the flight was cleared for takeoff.

Officials said the driver of the vehicle, a Ford Explorer, was on a taxiway and apparently failed to follow safety procedures requiring him to stop at the runway intersection and radio the tower for permission to cross. The taxiway, known as Taxiway M, is in the middle of the airfield and under construction. It crosses Runway 15R, the one the plane was speeding down.

Jim Peters, a spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration, said an alarm sounded in the control tower warning that an object was on the runway, and air traffic controllers noticed the vehicle.