An Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 Max aborted a takeoff at Nashville International Airport on Thursday to avoid hitting a Southwest flight that had mistakenly been given clearance to taxi across the runway. The force put through the wheels during braking blew out the Alaska plane’s tires. The 78-ton aircraft reached 120 miles per hour before the takeoff was called off. The incident occurred despite Nashville being one of four airports reportedly equipped with the FAA’s latest runway safety technology.
The near-miss appears not to have been the result of an error by either flight crew. Air traffic control cleared Southwest Airlines Flight 2029 to cross the runway as the plane prepared to take off for Jacksonville, according to NBC News. Despite the blown-out tires, the stopped plane got off the runway but not back to the terminal. Alaska Airlines sent a replacement plane to fly all 176 passengers onboard to Seattle on the same day, along with a refund and an additional $1,000.
Southwest Airlines was involved in a similar incident at Regan National Airport in Washington, D.C. earlier this year. Air traffic control cleared a Southwest plane to cross a runway as a JetBlue flight was taking off, and both aircraft came within 400 feet of each other. Both near-misses are a symptom of the current shortage of air traffic controllers.
The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating the near-miss in Nashville. In April, the agency stated that new surface awareness technology would be installed at four airports by July to assist overworked controllers and improve safety, Reuters reported. The FAA refused to comment on if this system was operating during the incident.
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