An American Airlines plane was forced to abruptly abort take-off at the last second on Wednesday to avoid crashing into a private jet landing at Virginia’s Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, officials said.
The near-miss — the second close call to plague the Arlington airport in just over a month — unfolded just after the Boston-bound flight had been given clearance by air traffic controllers to take-off at about 10.30 am.
The plane had already reached speeds of roughly 100 mph when controllers realized the King Air private jet was landing on an intersecting runway.
Air traffic controllers had ordered the smaller plane to go around and not land, but the jet had already touched down, according to audio of the exchange.
“American 2134 cancel takeoff clearance. Zero, alpha, alpha, go around, go around,” a traffic controller could be heard saying in audio obtained by Boston25.
The American pilot quickly responded they were “rejecting” take-off before the private jet pilot said, “Zero alpha alpha, cannot go around, we are already on the ground.”
The Federal Aviation Administration said it was probing the close call — the second to unfolded at Reagan National Airport, just outside Washington DC, in the last few weeks.
“An air traffic controller canceled the takeoff clearance for American Airlines Flight 2134 because another aircraft was cleared to land on an intersecting runway,” the FAA said in a statement.
“The FAA will investigate.”
The American Airlines plane returned to its gate and maintenance crews performed several hours of inspections.
The flight eventually took off again roughly four and a half hours later.
It comes after a JetBlue plane bound for Boston aborted takeoff on April 16 after a Southwest Airlines plane encroached on a Reagan National Airport runway.
“JetBlue 1554 stop! 1554 stop!” the traffic controller in that incident could be heard calling out. The Southwest pilot replied: “We stopped. We were cleared to cross Runway 4.”
Both planes slammed on the brakes in the nick of time, leaving just 400 feet between each.
