Federal authorities are currently probing an incident involving an American Airlines aircraft that was forced to abort its takeoff from Reagan National Airport to prevent a potential collision with another plane landing on a crossing runway.
This marks the second near-miss at the bustling airport close to Washington, D.C., within a span of six weeks.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) revealed that an air traffic controller rescinded the takeoff clearance for American Airlines Flight 2134 after another aircraft was given the green light to land on the intersecting runway on Wednesday.
An audio recording from LiveATC.net captured the conversation between the air traffic controller and the pilots of the American Airlines plane, with the controller informing the pilots that their takeoff clearance had been revoked, and the pilots acknowledging the directive.
In a statement, an American Airlines spokesperson said, The safety of our customers and team members is our top priority, and were grateful to our crew for their professionalism. The airline has pledged to assist federal investigators in their inquiry.
Following the incident, the second, smaller plane landed safely. Approximately four hours later, American Airlines Flight 2134 successfully took off and proceeded to Boston, as per data from FlightAware.
In a similar incident in April, air traffic controllers authorized a Southwest Airlines plane to traverse a runway that a JetBlue plane was using for takeoff. Both aircraft were instructed to halt, thereby averting a collision. The FAA is also conducting an investigation into this incident.
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