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In a hair-raising near miss, two 
Southwest Airlines aircraft were forced to perform emergency maneuvers to avoid a mid-air collision after instructions from Air Traffic Control instructed one jet to turn directly into the path of the other. Flight WN507 turned right after a go-around which crossed in front of WN1152 which was departing Nashville International Airport (BNA).
Fortunately, thanks to safety advisory alarms from the TCAS system in each aircraft, the pilots were able to de-conflict themselves and avoid any danger as was made clear from the audio on liveatc.net. Flight WN507 was operating a Boeing 737 MAX 8 to Columbus International (CMH) while WN1152 was flying a 737-700 bound for McGhee Tyson Airport (TYS) and both safely reached their destination.
Close Call At Nashville For Southwest Flyers
The close call at Nashville Airport occurred on Saturday, April 18, when ATC instructions inadvertently placed the arriving Southwest jet on a collision course with the other Southwest flight departing from a parallel runway. Flight WN507 had elected to take a go-around for safety due to wind gusts on the runway. Flightradar24 data indicates the planes passed within approximately 500 vertical feet of each other which is half of the required 1,000-foot separation.
This is the second such close call at the airport in less than one year and follows a trend around the nation of increasingly frequent hazardous flying conditions in congested airspace. The notoriously deadly crash that killed 67 in the tragedy of American Airlines Flight 5342 at Ronald Reagan International (DCA) in early 2025 raised the alarm but issues have persisted at airports around the nation.
Saturday’s incident in Nashville serves to highlight that there is an ongoing crisis with ATC staffing and systems capacity to ensure 24/7 safety of flight. In the investigation that has followed Flight 5342, the Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board have continued to struggle with making a nationwide scale plan to improve safety. An FAA spokesperson gave this statement to The Tennessean regarding the close call at BNA:
“The crew of Southwest Airlines Flight 507 initiated a go-around at Nashville International Airport and then received instructions from air traffic control that put the flight in the path of another airplane that was departing from a parallel runway.”
TCAS Saves the Day Over Tennessee
Meant to be a last line of defense, the traffic collision avoidance system on board both of the Boeing 737 jets on Saturday was the saving grace of the two Southwest aircraft. The emergency system was able to alert the pilots in time to avoid the conflicting orders from Air Traffic Control because the two airborne sensors detected and communicated with each other to identify a potential collision before it occurred.
In the event of a TCAS alert that contradicts ATC instructions, pilots are trained to give precedence to TCAS for safety of flight. The system gives a resolution advisory to the pilots, in this case a recommendation to one pilot to climb and the other pilot to descend. In this way, TCAS ensures that the two jets were able to achieve a safe vertical separation before their flight paths intersected.
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The Snowballing Danger To American Aviation
The FAA has launched a formal investigation into the event, classifying it as a near midair collision. A primary focus of the inquiry is the role of staffing levels at the BNA tower, as the airport had recently experienced ‘ATC Zero’ events, or tower closures, and significant delays due to a lack of available controllers. Unfortunately, this incident at BNA is far from isolated but rather the latest in a concerningly more frequent trend across the US.
The core of the problem is a decades-long staffing deficit that has reached a breaking point. The FAA remains approximately 3,500 certified controllers short of its own staffing targets as of early 2026. The U.S. currently has roughly 25% fewer controllers than it did in 1981, despite managing three times more traffic.
Chronic shortages lead directly to human factors that cause errors like the one in Nashville. Controllers at understaffed facilities frequently work six-day workweeks and 10-hour shifts. Jacksonville.com reported that experts point to fatigue and high-stress environments as the primary drivers behind the 61% surge in near mid-air collisions reported since 2019.
