Close call at Nashville airport came after planes were directed to same runway, probe shows

WASHINGTON (AP) — Investigators say that air traffic controllers cleared one plane to take off after telling pilots of another plane to cross the same runway in Nashville last month. Pilots of an Alaska Airlines jet aborted their takeoff, braking so hard that the tires on their plane deflated by design. The National Transportation Safety Board released a timeline of the incident on Wednesday as part of a brief preliminary report. The agency says it’s continuing to investigate. No one was injured in the Nashville incident. There were 176 passengers and crew members on the Alaska Airlines jet and 141 on the Southwest Airlines plane that crossed the runway.