The pilots of an Alaska Airlines flight aborted a takeoff from Nashville International Airport on Thursday to avoid hitting a Southwest Airlines jet that had been cleared to cross the end of the runway, the Federal Aviation Administration said.
By Ian Duncan
and Alaska said the flight, a Boeing 737 Max bound for Seattle carrying 176 passengers, had received clearance to take off.
“We’re grateful for the expertise of our pilots who immediately applied the brakes to prevent the incident from escalating,” Alaska said in a statement. “Our pilots train for these situations and they handled the situation expertly.”
The National Transportation Safety Board said it was launching an investigation.
Southwest said in a statement that it would cooperate with the probe, adding: “Nothing is more important to Southwest than the safety of our customers and employees.”
The incident happened the same week that a Delta Air Lines plane clipped a regional jet in Atlanta, slicing its tail off.
The FAA has been working to deploy new technology and boost training for air traffic controllers to reduce the number of near misses at airports after a string of incidents in early 2023 alarmed aviation regulators and safety experts. The close calls were seen as a warning sign that the aviation system was under strain as it continued to recover from the pandemic.
Speaking at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Aerospace Summit on Tuesday, FAA Administrator Michael Whitaker said the agency has given controllers more tools for monitoring airport operations. The number of incidents is down by over half for the first half of 2024, he noted.
“So that’s progress,” he said. “But if you look at that, there’s no excuse for that to be happening, so we’re going to keep monitoring.”
