Two aircraft almost collided on the same runway at Nashville International Airport (BNA), local federal authorities reported.
On September 12, 2024, at about 09:15 local time, an Alaska Airlines service operated by a Boeing 737 MAX was getting ready to depart on flight AS369 to Seattle. The aircraft had already been cleared for take off by air traffic controllers.
However, the pilots of the Alaska Airlines flight noticed a Southwest Airlines aircraft, which was scheduled to fly to Jacksonville, coming towards the same runway. The Boeing 737 MAX pilots quickly hit the brakes and stopped the aircraft. At that time, the aircraft was going about 120 miles per hour (around 193 kilometers per hour), according to flight tracking website Flightradar24.
There are no reports of any damage to either of the aircraft. After the incident, the pilots of the Boeing 737 MAX taxied the aircraft back to the terminal. Some tires had deflated and blown from the extreme heat buildup during the stop, FlightGlobal reported on September 13, 2024.
An Alaska Airlines spokesperson said the pilots saw “a potential traffic conflict on the runway” and immediately applied the brakes to “prevent the incident from escalating”, as reported by the local media.
Alaska Airlines reported that the flight to Seattle had 176 passengers and six crew members onboard. All passengers were moved to another aircraft and continued their journey to Seattle on the night of the incident.
Maintenance technicians in Nashville are inspecting the Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 MAX aircraft. There is no information as yet on the type of aircraft used by Southwest Airlines.
The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board are looking into the incident in more detail. Both Alaska Airlines and Southwest Airlines have stated they are fully cooperating with the investigation.