FAA investigates near-collision between two Southwest flights at Nashville airport

Another close call at a U.S. airport has put the basic safety question back in focus: whether controllers, pilots and airport systems are holding up under mounting pressure from runway and air-traffic risks.

The Federal Aviation Administration said it is investigating an extremely close encounter at Nashville International Airport after Southwest Flight 507 was preparing to land around 5:30 p.m. Saturday, April 18, 2026, amid gusty winds and made a precautionary go-around. The FAA said air traffic control instructions then put the aircraft into the path of another Southwest jet departing from a parallel runway.

Both flight crews responded to onboard collision-avoidance alerts, and Southwest said Flight 507 landed safely after the go-around while Flight 1152 continued its takeoff. Location data showed the planes were about 500 feet apart at their closest point. The FAA has not immediately said how close the aircraft came by its own measure, and the agency is continuing its review.

The incident lands in a national aviation climate already shaped by alarm over repeated near misses. Since the January 29, 2025 midair collision near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport that killed 67 people, the FAA has been reviewing helicopter-airplane traffic at airports with heavy mixed operations and taking additional safety actions. The Nashville event adds another example of how quickly a routine landing can turn hazardous when wind, timing and tower instructions converge over a busy runway complex.

Nashville International Airport has already seen a separate runway safety event. On September 12, 2024, an Alaska Airlines jet rejected takeoff when a Southwest plane crossed the runway at taxiway T5, according to a preliminary National Transportation Safety Board report. No one was hurt and no damage was reported, but the episode showed how the same airport has appeared more than once in runway-safety concerns.

Southwest said its pilots and flight crews responded professionally and that safety remains its top priority. The FAA’s runway-safety statistics page notes that runway incursion data are subject to revision, a reminder that the official record is still being refined even as investigators examine what happened in Nashville. For passengers and aviation workers, the larger test is whether the latest response will reduce a pattern that keeps resurfacing at airports across the country.