American Airlines passengers on a Boston-bound flight were forced to land after another aircraft nearly collided with them.
The Federal Aviation Administration is now investigating what led up to the averted collision.
Two incidents at Reagan National Airport in Arlington, Virginia, involved Boston-bound planes that had to abort their take-off.
The first incident happened back on April 18. An air traffic controller at Reagan instructed a Southwest Airlines flight to cross a runway, while a Boston-bound JetBlue flight was starting to takeoff from the same runway.
The JetBlue flight aborted takeoff and there was no collision and no injuries.
On Wednesday, air traffic controllers cleared a Boston-bound American Airlines flight for takeoff at 10:30 a.m., while a smaller King Air plane was cleared to land on an intersecting runway.
The American Airlines plane had reached speeds of about 100 miles an hour when air traffic controllers ordered the pilot to abort takeoff.
“American 2134, cancel takeoff clearance! Zero, Alpha, Alpha, go around, go around!”
“Rejecting the takeoff, 2134.”
“Zero, Alpha, Alpha cannot go around, we were already on the ground.”
“American 2134, do you want to go back to the gate?”
“Yeah, we need to talk to maintenance but yeah, I think we were above 80 knots, so we’re going to have to get an inspection.”
The FAA is investigating the incident, saying in a statement, “An air traffic controller cancelled the takeoff clearance for American Airlines Flight 2134 because another aircraft was cleared to land on an intersecting runway at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.”
“The safety of our customers and team members is our top priority, and we’re grateful to our crew for their professionalism. We will support the FAA in its investigation,” said an American Airlines spokesperson.
The FAA said after the first incident that air traffic controllers are at high-risk for fatigue because of scheduling issues and staff shortages. However, it’s unclear if that played a role in either incident.
