In another scary plane incident during a year that has been full of them, a JetBlue Airways plane and a Southwest Airlines plane nearly ran into one another on the ground Thursday at Washington, D.C.’s Reagan National Airport, NBC News reports.
The JetBlue plane, an Embraer ERJ-190 heading to Boston according to the website FlightAware, was preparing to take off from runway while the Southwest plane, a Boeing 737 Max 9 heading to Orlando, Florida, was attempting to taxi over to another runway. The two jetliners reportedly came within 1,000 feet of one another. Though the JetBlue plane aborted its takeoff, it did eventually make it into the air, and both flights carried on to their destinations without further incident.
Plane safety has become the subject of heightened sensitivity and scrutiny in the wake of a Boeing 737 Max 9 door plug blowout aboard a flight operated by Alaska Airlines. Boeing’s CEO has announced that he will depart by the end of the year as part of the fallout, and the Justice Department has opened a criminal probe. Because so many planes were grounded while regulators tried to figure out what happened, Boeing agreed to pay Alaska Airlines $160 million to make up for lost profits. United Airlines worked out a similar deal for similar reasons, though the terms of the agreement were not publicized.
Earlier this month, a Southwest plane came very close to the control tower at New York City’s LaGuardia Airport. Another plane ran into turbulence so bad it had to do an emergency landing so that a flight attendant and a passenger could receive medical treatment. The FAA said it was investigating both incidents.
The website airlineratings.com, which takes things like pilot-error incidents, crashes, and passage rate for audits by major airline regulators in the United States and Europe into account, is currently giving the carrier a 7/7 safety rating.