Delta Airlines Flight 4231, outbound to Reagan National Airport in Washington, DC, was taxiing down Runway 13 at the New York City airport. Without warning, another plane from budget airline Volaris accidentally attempted to land on the same runway instead of the adjacent one to which it was assigned.
"Looks like there's a plane on final," the Delta pilot said.
Air traffic control acted first, cancelling the Delta flight's take-off plans and ordering Volaris Flight 880 flight to turn around.
"You're lined up on the wrong runway," an air traffic controlled told the Volaris pilots. "Volaris 880 go around, turn left heading 100."
The Volaris flight, incoming from Mexico, corrected the error in the air and then landed without any injuries or further incident. It has not yet been made clear how close the planes got to one another, but the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is investigating the incident.
"The crew of Delta Flight 4231, operated by Delta Connection carrier Republic Airline, safely executed a low-speed takeoff rejection from New York-JFK Tuesday afternoon at the direction of air traffic control," said Delta in a statement.
"Following proper procedures, the aircraft exited the runway; the crew subsequently requeued for departure and completed the flight to Washington Reagan without incident."
The Volaris was an Airbus A320, which can have as many as 195 passengers. "The safety of our passengers and crew is our highest priority, and in accordance with our procedures Volaris will conduct an investigation to determine the factors that led to this event," Volaris wrote in a statement.
