The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said it will investigate a near miss on the runway at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport outside Washington, D.C., on Thursday morning in which a plane nearly crossed the runway while another plane was taking off.
According to an emailed statement from the FAA, an air traffic controller instructed a Southwest flight to cross one of the runways while a JetBlue flight was “beginning its takeoff from the same runway.”
The incident happened Thursday at around 7:41 a.m. local time. The near miss happened between Southwest Flight 2937 and JetBlue Flight 1554, the FAA said.
Audio posted on YouTube shows air traffic controllers ordering planes to stop. The video, posted by VASAviation, said the Southwest flight was about 20 meters away from the runway entrance and about 90 meters from the JetBlue plane. NBC News first reported.
The near collision comes after many flight-related incidents have occurred in recent months, prompting the FAA to investigate.
In mid-January, the FAA said it was investigating a ground collision at Chicago O’Hare International Airport. Transport authorities and police have launched investigations into communication between air traffic control and two planes after a violent collision left five people dead in Japan in early January.
An investigative report from The New York Times published last August found that after reviewing FAA safety reports, there was an alarming pattern of safety lapses and near misses in the skies and on runways across the United States. Although no serious accidents have occurred, the Times noted that potentially dangerous incidents are happening more frequently than previously thought.
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