A Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 flying to Baltimore from Portland, Maine, had a shocking incident Tuesday morning.
The plane took off from runway 29 at 5:43 a.m., just two minutes before it was scheduled to open to traffic.
Alarmingly, the runway was undergoing a safety inspection at the time, with a ground vehicle present.
Although no one was injured in the incident, the situation raised serious concerns.
After the near-miss, the driver of the ground vehicle contacted the control tower, baffled as to why the plane had been cleared to take off from a closed runway.
A Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 flying to Baltimore from Portland, Maine, was involved in a shocking incident Tuesday morning.
A Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 flying to Baltimore from Portland, Maine, had a shocking incident Tuesday morning.
Surprisingly, the tower responded that they had never communicated with the pilots.
In leaked air traffic control recordings, controllers are heard repeatedly trying to warn Flight 4805 about the vehicle and the closed runway.
One recording even captures a controller saying, “Just so you know, there’s a vehicle on the runway and it’s closed… I tried to warn him.”
This incident raises questions about communication failures and security protocols at the airport and is currently being investigated by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).
In a statement to Newsweek, a spokesperson said: “Southwest Airlines is working with the NTSB and FAA to understand the circumstances surrounding the early morning departure of Flight 4805 from Portland International Jetport on Tuesday, June 25. Following departure, the aircraft continued safely to its destination.”
Boeing is under increased scrutiny after a series of worrying incidents in recent months.
The latest incident occurred on June 25, when a Southwest flight from Portland, Maine (flight 4805) took off from a closed runway, narrowly avoiding a ground vehicle. This incident comes on the heels of two other worrying developments.
On June 20, a Southwest flight from Las Vegas (Flight 4069) descended to a dangerously low altitude while approaching Oklahoma City Airport.
The plane descended to just 525 feet while still miles from landing, triggering an air traffic control alarm.
Even earlier, in late May, a Southwest Boeing 737 Max suffered a terrifying “Dutch roll” mid-flight from Phoenix to Oakland.
This maneuver involves the plane’s tail swinging and its wings moving up and down, causing what the FAA called “substantial” damage that forced the plane to be grounded for repair.
Its objective is to determine the cause of each problem and implement the necessary security measures to avoid similar events in the future.
