Near miss at DCA, FAA to investigate
WASHINGTON - Two planes nearly collided at Reagan National Airport Thursday morning.
A Boston-bound JetBlue plane and an Orlando-bound Southwest Airlines plane nearly collided on Runway 4 at DCA around 7:40 a.m. on Thursday.
"An air traffic controller instructed Southwest Airlines Flight 2937 to cross Runway 4 at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport while JetBlue Flight 1554 was starting its takeoff roll on the same runway," the Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement.
The Federal Aviation Administration say they will be investigating the incident.
The JetBlue flight ended up delayed on its trip to Boston, taking off at 1:30 p.m., hours after its scheduled departure time of 7:35 a.m.
The Southwest Airlines flight took off on time.
U.S. Senators Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine (both D-VA) released the following statement after the narrowly avoided crash between two aircraft at Ronald Reagan National Airport:
"Today’s near crash at DCA is a horrifying example of why it’s crucial that we beat back efforts to undermine slot and perimeter rules for our capital region airports. DCA’s overburdened runway is already the busiest in the country—and we fear that adding more flights could put passenger safety at serious jeopardy. We are thankful there was no loss of life or injuries, but this close call is unacceptable and we must ensure even near misses never occur again. To state the obvious: passenger safety should be a higher priority than whether some lawmakers have a direct flight home from DCA."
