Pilots of two Southwest Airlines planes were forced to take emergency evasive action to avoid crashing into one another near Nashville International Airport.
Collision alarms in the cockpits of both Boeing 737 aircraft went off, warning that they were too close together and narrowly avoiding disaster.
The incident occurred at around 5.30 p.m. Saturday, after Southwest Flight 507 was attempting to land in gusty conditions in Tennessee, having travelled from Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
Meanwhile, Southwest Flight 1152 was departing from a parallel runway on its way to Knoxville, Tennessee.
Flight 507 aborted its first landing as a precautionary measure, initiating a “go-around.”
According to the Federal Aviation Administration, the crew then “received instructions from air traffic control that put the flight in the path of another airplane.”
“Both flight crews responded to onboard alerts,” an FAA spokesperson told The Independent, and both flights completed their journeys safely and without further issue.
At their closest point, the aircraft were separated by only 500 feet of altitude, according to the tracking site Flightradar24.
“We are engaged with the FAA as part of the investigation,” a spokesperson for Southwest Airlines said.
“Southwest appreciates the professionalism of its Pilots and Flight Crews in responding to the event. Nothing is more important to Southwest than the Safety of our Customers and Employees.”
Despite the near-miss, other travelers were unaware of the incident.
‘”I was just drinking my coffee, there were no obvious signs that anything was happening,” one passenger, who flew out of Nashville on a Southwest flight an hour later, told The Independent.
