Near miss between JetBlue, Southwest planes at Reagan National under investigation

The Federal Aviation Administration is probing a near-miss incident Thursday between JetBlue and Southwest Airlines planes at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.

After getting clearance, JetBlue Flight 1554 to Boston’s Logan International Airport was about to take off at 7:41 a.m. when an air traffic controller told Southwest Flight 2937 to cross the same runway, the Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement.

As the planes closed in on each other, the air traffic controllers noticed they were in each other’s path and halted both flights, with one yelling, “JetBlue 1554 stop! 1554 stop,” right after it was cleared for takeoff. Another controller then yelled, “Southwest, stop! Southwest 2937, stop,” according to audio from LiveATC.net.

Southwest and JetBlue told The Associated Press they’re cooperating with the FAA investigation into the incident.

An air travel expert told WTOP-FM that the mixup was caught so late that there was no margin for error left.

“This is unacceptably close. We have a dichotomy between two controllers who did not have situational awareness of exactly who was doing what. … The crew had minimal time. There was no margin left. If there had been a failure to communicate to JetBlue and they were on a high-speed portion of their takeoff, they would not have been able to swerve,” John Nance, a retired Alaska Airlines captain and safety expert, said.

Shortly after the near miss, the Southwest flight took off for Orlando International Airport at 7:47 a.m. while the JetBlue flight was forced to take off six hours later than expected at 1:48 p.m., according to tracking website FlightAware.

The FAA recently announced a pair of tools it’s planning to roll out to airports to prevent runway collisions, including one system that uses satellite data to display runway surface traffic for air traffic controllers and one that lets pilots and controllers know whether a runway is occupied before takeoff or landing.