Jet aborts takeoff in Nashville to avoid potential collision

(The Hill) — An Alaska Airlines jet aborted takeoff from Nashville International Airport to avoid a potential collision with a Southwest Airlines flight on Thursday.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) told The Hill that the Alaska Airlines crew, aboard a Boeing 737 Max 9, “discontinued their takeoff because Southwest Airlines Flight 2029 was cleared to cross near the end of the same runway” at the Nashville airport. Alaska Airlines reported blown tires during braking, according to the FAA.

The Southwest Airlines flight utilized a Boeing 737-700.

The incident occurred around 9:15 a.m. local time.

The pilots recognized “a potential traffic conflict on the runway” and “immediately applied the brakes to prevent the incident from escalating,” a spokesperson for Alaska Airlines told The Associated Press (AP). No injuries occurred.

Alaska Airlines told the AP the flight had 176 passengers and six crew members. The spokesperson said the plane was undergoing inspection while another plane took the passengers to Seattle, according to the AP.

Both the FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) are investigating the incident, the agencies confirmed.

“Southwest Airlines is in contact with the FAA and NTSB and will participate in the investigation. Nothing is more important to Southwest than the Safety of our Customers and Employees,” Southwest Airlines said in a statement to The Hill.

NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy, during a Senate subcommittee hearing last November, said that while aviation incidents are “incredibly rare,” the system is “showing clear signs of strain that we cannot ignore.”

Homendy stated that NTSB had opened investigations into seven incursions in 2023.

“In over half, the aircraft got within several hundred feet of each other,” she said during the hearing.

The Hill has reached out to Alaska Airlines for further comment.