An American Airlines flight heading to Boston Wednesday morning was forced to cancel its takeoff to avoid a collision with a plane that had landed on an intersecting runway, officials said.
The American Airlines flight was scheduled to take off from Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport at 10:15 a.m. Wednesday. But, around 10:30 a.m. air traffic controllers canceled the plane’s takeoff clearance because another plane had been cleared to land at the airport on an interesting runway.
As a result, the flight, which left its gate at 10:05 a.m., did not depart until more than four hours later — at 2:36 p.m. Wednesday, according to the online flight tracker FlightAware. The flight landed at Boston Logan International Airport at 3:46 p.m. It had originally been scheduled to land at 11:28 a.m.
American Airlines said it would support the Federal Aviation Administration’s investigation of the incident.
“The safety of our customers and team members is our top priority, and we’re grateful to our crew for their professionalism,” the airline said in a statement.
Multiple media reports indicate the plane was traveling at a speed upward of 90 mph when it was forced to abort its takeoff.
The incident Wednesday morning marked the second time in just over a month that a Boston-bound flight has been severely delayed after an incident at Reagan Airport.
On April 18, a JetBlue flight nearly collided with a Southwest Airlines flight on the runway there. The JetBlue flight was beginning its takeoff roll on a runway at the airport when an air traffic controller instructed a Southwest Airlines flight heading to Orlando, Florida to cross the runway, the FAA said in a statement.