The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating after the pilot of a Southwest Airlines was given instructions that could have caused a catastrophe at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport Thursday.
According to NBC News, the pilot of the Southwest jet was errantly and prematurely told to cross an occupied runway while taxiing.
The result was a near-collision with a JetBlue aircraft on the runway at the Arlington County, Virginia, airport just after 7:40 a.m. local time.
NBC News reported that the pilot of Southwest Airlines Flight 2937 was told by air traffic control to cross runway No. 4.
Simultaneously, the pilot of JetBlue Flight 1554 had begun to take off on the very same runway.
The incident could have caused a deadly collision. The two aircraft came within 1,000 feet of one another.
A radio transmission from the near-disaster showed the pilots of both flights were instructed to immediately stop what they were doing.
“JetBlue 1554, stop! Southwest, stop! Southwest 2937, stop!” one panicked voice said.
Southwest Airlines 737-8 MAX almost collides with a departing Jetblue Embraer ERJ-190 at Washington Ronald Reagan National Airport. pic.twitter.com/A6D6usPKyZ
— Breaking Aviation News & Videos (@aviationbrk) April 19, 2024
The pilot of JetBlue 1554 ended up aborting takeoff. No injuries were reported.
The Southwest jet departed on time, while the JetBlue flight was delayed by about six hours -- taking off just after 1:30 p.m. and headed for Boston.
The FAA confirmed an investigation is underway in a statement that was provided to WTTG-TV:
“An air traffic controller instructed Southwest Airlines Flight 2937 to cross Runway 4 at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport while JetBlue Flight 1554 was starting its takeoff roll on the same runway.”
Virginia’s two senators, Democrats Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, also issued a joint statement in which they called the incident “horrifying.”
"Today’s near crash at DCA is a horrifying example of why it’s crucial that we beat back efforts to undermine slot and perimeter rules for our capital region airports,” the senators said.
“[The airport’s] overburdened runway is already the busiest in the country—and we fear that adding more flights could put passenger safety at serious jeopardy,” the pair added. “We are thankful there was no loss of life or injuries, but this close call is unacceptable and we must ensure even near misses never occur again.
"To state the obvious," they concluded, "passenger safety should be a higher priority than whether some lawmakers have a direct flight home from DCA."
Aviation analyst Jeff Guzzetti told NBC News he believed the planes nearly collided because of a lack of communication in the tower.
“It appears that you had two different airplanes talking to two different controllers — one ground controller and one tower controller, so it appears to be an operational error,” he said.
Thursday’s incident comes as the safety of traveling by air is being questioned by numerous issues with Boeing jets this year.
As NBC News noted, there have been a number of similar incidents on runways in recent years that have concerned the FAA.
