Two Southwest Airlines jets were forced to take evasive action late Saturday afternoon just north of Nashville International Airport to avoid a potential midair collision, NewsChannel 5 Investigates has discovered.
A review of air traffic data and ATC recordings indicates that a controller inadvertently turned a Southwest Boeing 737 Max 8 into the path of a Southwest Boeing 737-700 that was taking off from the airport. Pilots in both aircraft indicated that they took evasive action in response to Resolution Alerts (RAs) from their on-board collision avoidance systems.
The Max 8 aircraft, Southwest Flight 507, was heading from Myrtle Beach to Nashville and had been cleared to land on Runway 2 Left. For unknown reasons, the data suggests the flight crew decided to execute a “go-around” instead of landing…