AA2134 - Incident: American A319 at Washington on May 29th 2024

An American Airlines Airbus A319-100, registration N812AW performing flight AA-2134 from Washington National,DC to Boston,MA (USA), was cleared for takeoff from runway 01.

At the same time a King Air was cleared to land on crossing runway 33.

Tower finally noticed the developing conflict and cancelled the takeoff clearance for AA-2134 and instructed the King Air to go around. AA-2134 rejected takeoff at about 80 KIAS, the King Air advised they could not go around anymore as they were already on the ground.

The A319 returned to the apron for a maintenance inspection and departed again about 4:15 hours after the rejected takeoff.

The FAA stated: "An air traffic controller cancelled the takeoff clearance for American Airlines Flight 2134 because another aircraft was cleared to land on an intersecting runway at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. The event occurred around 10:30 am local time on Wednesday, May 29. The FAA will investigate."

On Oct 23rd 2024 the NTSB released their preliminary report summarizing the sequence of events:

A review of Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) air traffic control (ATC) audio recordings indicated that about 1418:19 EDT, the crew of N250AA established communication with the local controller and reported inbound on a 6-mile final for a visual approach to runway 33. The controller provided the crew of N250AA a traffic advisory regarding an aircraft that was in lineup and wait (LUAW) on runway 33 and advised the aircraft would depart prior to their arrival, followed by a landing clearance to runway 33. The crew acknowledged the clearance with a correct readback.

Seven seconds later at 1418:42, the local controller queried the crew of AAL2134, asking if they were on frequency. The crew of AAL2134 acknowledge that they had “just made the switch.” At 1418:46, in order to meet their release time, the local controller instructed the crew of AAL2134 to proceed ahead of an uninvolved aircraft and to hold short of runway 1.

At 1420:04, N250AA was on a 2-mile final for runway 33 when AAL2134 was instructed to LUAW on runway 1 while they awaited a previous arrival to exit the runway. The local controller advised the crew of AAL2134 of additional traffic on a 6-mile final to runway 1. The crew acknowledged with a correct readback.

At 1420:40, N250AA was on an approximate 0.9 mile final to runway 33 when AAL was cleared for takeoff. A traffic advisory was issued to the pilots of AAL2134 for traffic on a 4 mile final to runway 1.

At 1421:09, the Airport Surface Detection Equipment – Model X (ASDE-X) alarmed, which brought the tower teams attention to the conflict. ASDE-X is a system that provides controllers with visual and aural alerts to runway conflicts through predictive system logic. At 1421:13, the local controller cancelled the takeoff clearance for AAL2134 and also instructed the crew of N250AA to go around.

At 1421:19 the crew of AAL2134 reported rejecting the takeoff and at 1421:29 the crew of N250AA responded unable to go around due to having already landed. Both aircraft exited their perspective runways without further incident.

Related Flight: AA2134, American Airlines News