(Photo : PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images)
An Alaska Airlines plane had to stop very quickly on the runway at Nashville International Airport to avoid crashing into a Southwest Airlines plane.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) are looking into what happened during the incident that took place around 9:15 a.m. on Thursday (September 12).
Alaska Airlines Jet Aborts Takeoff to Avoid Collision
The problem started when the Alaska Airlines jet was getting ready to take off. The pilots saw that a Southwest Airlines plane was supposed to cross the runway, so they decided to stop their plane to avoid a crash.
The Alaska Airlines spokesperson said the pilots acted fast and used the brakes hard to stop the plane. Thankfully, no one got hurt.
The sudden stop caused the tires on the plane to go flat because they got too hot from the braking. According to AP News, the Alaska Airlines flight was going to Seattle with 176 passengers and six crew members.
After the incident, the plane was checked, and another plane was sent to take the passengers to Seattle by Thursday evening.
Southwest Airlines is working with the FAA and NTSB to figure out what went wrong. They said they are very concerned about the safety of their passengers and staff.
The NTSB confirmed that the planes involved were a Boeing 737 Max 9 from Alaska Airlines and a Boeing 737-900 from Southwest Airlines.
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Recent Aviation Safety Issues
Last November, Jennifer Homendy, who is in charge of the NTSB, said these rare incidents are causing stress in the aviation system due to the high number of flights.
Another serious near-miss happened in February 2023 when a FedEx plane almost crashed into a Southwest plane in Austin, Texas.
Just a few days before the Nashville incident, there was another runway problem at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.
On Tuesday (September 10), a Delta flight going to Tokyo bumped into another Delta flight heading to Louisiana. The Airbus 350 had its wing damaged, and the smaller Endeavour Air plane had its tail damaged, according to MailOnline.
Kyle Forrester, a passenger on the Alaska Airlines flight, took pictures of the plane after it stopped and was grateful that the pilots acted quickly to prevent a crash.
The FAA and NTSB are continuing their investigations to make air travel safer and to stop similar problems from happening again.
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