ARLINGTON, Va. (AP) – The Federal Aviation Administration will investigate after a plane at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport was directed to cross the runway where another plane was beginning to take off. The department announced.
Around 7:41 a.m. Thursday, a JetBlue flight was beginning its takeoff roll on Runway 4 at the Arlington, Virginia, airport outside Washington, D.C., when air traffic controllers saw a Southwest Airlines flight cross the same runway. The FAA announced that it had instructed them to do so. said in a statement. The agency plans to investigate the incident.
Associated Press correspondent Haya Panjwani reports that two planes nearly passed each other at an airport near Washington, D.C.
Southwest Airlines Flight 2937, bound for Orlando, Florida, took off from the airport at 7:47 a.m., according to FlightAware, which tracks flight status. JetBlue Flight 1554 was bound for Boston and took off from Reagan National Airport at 1:48 p.m., according to FlightAware.
JetBlue said in a statement that the takeoff was aborted after another plane attempted to cross the runway, but no injuries were reported. The plane was inspected before departing for Boston, and JetBlue said it would “work closely with federal authorities to thoroughly investigate this incident.” Southwest Airlines said in a statement that it is aware of the incident and is “working with the FAA to fully understand the situation.”