An American Airlines flight had to suddenly abort takeoff at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport on Wednesday to avoid colliding with another aircraft, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reported.
American Airlines Flight 2134 to Boston was preparing for takeoff around 10:30 a.m. local time when the air traffic controller had to cancel the takeoff clearance, according to an FAA statement. The plane reportedly reached speeds of 100 mph before air traffic controllers realized a King Air private jet was landing on the runway, according to the New York Post.
The private jet was reportedly ordered not to land and instead to go around, the outlet reported. The plane, however, had already landed.
“American 2134 cancel takeoff clearance. [inaudible] zero, alpha, alpha, go around, go around,” air traffic controllers said, according to an audio recording cited by Boston 25 News. The American Airlines pilot acknowledged the canceled clearance while the King Air jet offered its own response.
“Zero alpha alpha, cannot go around, we are already on the ground,” the King Air pilot responded, the outlet reported.
The American Airlines flight then had to return to the gate for inspection, the outlet noted.
“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 American Airlines pilot said, according to Boston 25 News.
American Airlines plane aborts take-off at last second to avoid crashing into landing flight at Reagan National Airport https://t.co/xUge7kZL5a pic.twitter.com/XGCfFIPMAF
— New York Post (@nypost) May 30, 2024
The flight to Boston left roughly four hours later, according to FlightAware. (RELATED: Two Planes Collide In Japan For Second Time In Two Weeks).
The FAA is investigating the incident.
This is the second recent incident involving a close call at Reagan National Airport. On April 16, a JetBlue flight also bound for Boston had to suddenly abort takeoff after a Southwest Airlines flight was given clearance to cross the same runway, according to another Post report.
It took about 30 seconds for air traffic controllers to realize the issue, forcing them to call for both planes to stop, the Post reported. Both planes reportedly slammed on the breaks and stopped with roughly 400 feet between the two aircraft.
