Alaska Airlines plane aborts takeoff to avoid collision with Southwest jet

By David Shepardson

(Reuters) -An Alaska Airlines airplane aborted takeoff at Tennessee's Nashville International Airport on Thursday to avoid a potential collision with a Southwest Airlines jet, the airlines and authorities said.

Alaska Airlines 369, a Boeing 737 MAX 9 airplane with 176 passengers and six crew on board, aborted its takeoff around 9:15 a.m. ET (1315 GMT) after it had received clearance from air traffic control, Alaska said.

National Transportation Safety Board Chair Jennifer Homendy told reporters the board was investigating. "We are clearly very concerned about this (incident) and others we are investigating," Homendy said.

The Federal Aviation Administration said it was also is investigating the incident, where Southwest Airlines Flight 2029 - a Boeing 737-700 - that was scheduled to depart for Jacksonville, Florida, had been cleared to cross the end of the same runway.

The Alaska pilots immediately applied the brakes to prevent the incident from escalating, the carrier added. The plane had been scheduled to fly to Seattle, Washington, and passengers were being moved to a new plane.

The FAA and Alaska said the 737 MAX 9's tires were blown during braking. Tracking website Flightradar24 said the Alaska plane was traveling at 104 knots (120 mph, 193 km per hour) on the runway before slowing.

Southwest said it was in contact with the NTSB and FAA and would participate in the investigation. Alaska said maintenance technicians in Nashville were inspecting the aircraft.

The FAA said in April it would install new surface awareness technology at four airports including Nashville by July.

Homendy said it is unclear if that technology has been installed and if it is currently operating. "Was it online on that runway," Homendy said. "Did warnings go off?"

The FAA declined to comment on whether the technology was operating.

Alaska confirmed it was refunding passengers their airfare and giving them $1,000 to assist with inconvenience from the flight.

"We recognize how distressing this incident must have been and we are grateful to you and our crew for everyone's calm and patience throughout this experience," Alaska told passengers in an email posted on social media that was confirmed by the carrier.

Last year, a series of near-miss incidents raised concerns about U.S. aviation safety and the strain on understaffed air traffic control operations.

FAA Administrator Mike Whitaker told reporters on Wednesday the number of serious runway incursion incidents had fallen by over 50% but "we continue to work the issue by creating more technology for controllers, more technology in the arrival facilities."

In June, the NTSB found that incorrect assumptions on the part of an air traffic controller led to a February 2023 near-collision between a FedEx plane and a Southwest aircraft in Austin, Texas.

The two planes came within about 170 feet (52 meters) of each other when the FedEx Boeing 767 was forced to fly over the Southwest 737-700 to avoid a crash in poor visibility.

Homendy said in June the board wants low-visibility training for controllers and faster deployment of technology at airports and cockpit alerts to prevent future near-collisions.

(Reporting by David Shepardson; editing by Jonathan Oatis and Lincoln Feast.)