NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Two Southwest airplanes had a close call at Nashville International Airport. The Federal Aviation Administration has since launched an investigation into the incident.
The close call happened in the evening of April 18 when an air traffic controller mistakenly told a plane to enter the path of another. The two jets were within 500 vertical feet of each other, The New York Times reported.
Flight 507 aborted its landing and performed a go-around because of high winds.
The air traffic controller told the pilots to go on an approach that put the jet into the path of Flight 1152, which was cleared by another controller for takeoff from a parallel runway, the FAA and The Tennessean said.
Flight 507’s pilots reacted to an onboard alert and were able to avoid Flight 1152, landing safely. Flight 1152 was able to take off as well, the Times reported.
The Traffic Avoidance Collision System warned pilots on both aircraft, the FAA said.
The incident happened 49 hours after the FAA had enforced a ground delay at the airport due to a shortage of controllers, The Tennessean reported.
Data compiled by the FAA and shared in 2025 noted that Nashville airspace is on the list of the top 100 most frequent runway incursions, with about 33.1 incidents per million flights, the newspaper reported. Runway incursions involve not just aircraft. They include “the incorrect presence of an aircraft, vehicle or person on the protected area of a runway,” the agency said.
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