The pilots of a Boeing 737 nearly took off from a taxiway at a Florida airport on Thursday before an air traffic controller intervened and instructed them to stop, according to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which is investigating the incident.
Southwest Airlines Flight 3278 had been cleared for takeoff on a runway at Orlando International Airport, headed for Albany, New York. However, the plane began accelerating on a parallel taxiway instead, prompting the air traffic controller to revoke the takeoff clearance.
Taxiways are designed for planes to move between gates and runways, but they are not intended for takeoffs or landings.
At the time of the incident, the aircraft’s speed reached 70 knots, or roughly 80 mph. Normally, planes travel at around 35 mph on taxiways, and a Boeing 737 requires a speed of about 150 mph to take off.
“The crew mistook the taxiway for the nearby runway,” the airline explained in a statement. “Southwest is working with the NTSB (National Transportation Safety Board) and the FAA to investigate the circumstances of the event.”
The 737 came to a safe stop, and no other aircraft were involved, Southwest reported. The airline later arranged for the passengers to fly to Albany on a different plane.
This incident follows a series of recent aviation events, including near-misses, crash landings, and accidents. One such incident was the fatal collision between an American Airlines plane and a US Army helicopter in Washington, DC.
On Wednesday, the NTSB released a report on the February 6 crash of a Bering Air flight in Alaska, which resulted in the deaths of all 10 people on board. The NTSB found that the Cessna Grand Caravan was overweight before taking off. The plane was initially reported as missing but was later discovered the next day on ice in Alaska’s Norton Sound.
Additionally, the Transportation Safety Board of Canada published a preliminary report on a February 17 incident in which a Delta Air Lines regional jet flipped over during its landing at Toronto Pearson International Airport. Passengers were left “hanging like bats,” but all 80 people aboard, including passengers and crew, survived.
On February 25, Southwest Flight 2504, arriving at Chicago Midway Airport from Omaha, was landing on runway 31C when a private Bombardier Challenger 350 crossed the runway in front of it. According to a preliminary NTSB report, the pilots of the private jet believed they were crossing a different runway and in the right location at the time. The two aircraft came as close as 200 feet at their nearest point, the NTSB noted.