Two Southwest Airlines planes had to take evasive action to avoid colliding Saturday in Nashville, Tennessee, after an air traffic controller directed one pilot to turn into the path of the other plane.
Last year, an American Airlines jet collided with an Army Black Hawk helicopter near Washington, D.C., killing all 67 people aboard both aircraft. That crash on Jan. 29, 2025, put the spotlight on midair collisions, which are rare in commercial flights where the planes are equipped with systems to alert pilots about a potential collision.
Most of the close calls that happen every year involve small planes that don’t have those systems, but the Federal Aviation Administration couldn’t immediately provide a number for how many happen annually. There are typically several collisions involving small planes every year like the one that happened in February 2025 in Arizona that killed two people.
Both of the Southwest pilots involved in this incident over the weekend told the air traffic controller that they received alarms from their collision avoidance systems that directed them to take action with one plane climbing while the other descended to avoid the potential midair collision, according to audio posted by www.LiveATC.net.
Location data from these two planes show their flight paths converging after one pilot decided to abort landing and circle around to try again. The controller directed that plane to turn into the path of the other Southwest plane that had just taken off. By the time the controller recognized the threat and tried to direct the plane that had just taken off to stay below 2000 feet (609 meters), the pilot reported that he was already above that level.
That location data appears to show these planes getting as close as 500 feet (152 meters) apart with one of them flying just over the top of the other plane, according to FlightRadar24, so that would fit the official definition of a near midair collision. But it may not be clear exactly how close they planes got until after the incident is reviewed.
The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating. The agency said the pilot of Southwest flight 507 “received instructions from air traffic control that put the flight in the path of another airplane that was departing from a parallel runway. Both flight crews responded to onboard alerts.”
But the FAA did not say how close the planes got during the incident that happened around 5:30 p.m. Saturday.
Southwest Airlines spokesperson Lynn Lunsford said gusty winds at the Nashville International Airport prompted the first pilot to perform a go around. He said both pilots followed the directions from the air traffic controller and their onboard collision avoidance systems to avoid running into each other.
“Southwest appreciates the professionalism of its pilots and flight crews in responding to the event. Nothing is more important to Southwest than the safety of our customers and employees,” Lunsford said in a statement.
Southwest Airlines grounds crew refuel an aircraft at Hollywood Burbank Airport in Burbank, Calif., Friday, April 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
NEW YORK (AP) — Oil prices climbed Monday following the latest rise of tensions between the United States and Iran, but the moves were more modest than they were earlier in the war. U.S. stocks, meanwhile, gave back a bit of their record-breaking rally.
The S&P 500 slipped 0.2% from its all-time high for just its second drop in 14 days after the United States seized an Iranian-flagged cargo vessel that it said had tried to evade its blockade of Iranian ports. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 4 points, or less than 0.1%, and the Nasdaq composite fell 0.3%.
The price for a barrel of Brent crude oil, the international standard, climbed 5.6% to settle at $95.48 on worries that Iran could keep petroleum pent up in the Persian Gulf if it continues to block tankers from exiting the Strait of Hormuz.
It’s a turnaround from the prior trading day on Wall Street, when stocks soared and oil prices tumbled after Iran said Friday it was reopening the strait to commercial traffic. That enthusiasm vanished quickly after Iran closed the strait again Saturday following the U.S. decision to press ahead with its blockade of Iranian ports.
The next big deadline is looming on Tuesday night at 8 p.m. Eastern time, which is early Wednesday Tehran time, when a ceasefire agreement between the United States and Iran is scheduled to expire.
Still, oil prices remain well below the high points reached so far in the war. Brent crude’s price briefly got above $119 per barrel when fears were at their highest. And the S&P 500 is still above where it was before the war.
Monday’s relatively muted moves suggest investors still see a possibility of a U.S.-Iranian agreement that could get oil flowing again from the Middle East to customers worldwide. It would be in both countries’ economic interests to end the war.
Companies with big fuel bills fell to some of Wall Street’s larger losses following the rise in crude’s cost, as they have through much of the war.
Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings dropped 3.5%, and Royal Caribbean Group lost 1.1%.
United Airlines sank 2.8%, and American Airlines fell 4.2% after American said it’s not interested in a merger with United. Airline stocks had flown higher last week following a report saying United wanted to combine with its rival.
On the winning side of Wall Street was TopBuild, a distributor of insulation and building products, which jumped 19.4%. QXO is buying it in a deal valued at roughly $17 billion.
QXO said the deal would make it the continent’s second-largest publicly traded building products distributor, and its stock fell 3.1%.
All told, the S&P 500 fell 16.92 points to 7,109.14. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 4.87 to 49,442.56, and the Nasdaq composite slipped 64.09 to 24,404.39.
One big reason the U.S. stock market has been so strong recently is the big profits that U.S. companies have been reporting for the first three months of 2026, as well as expectations for continued growth.
While reporting stronger profits for the latest quarter than analysts expected, several of the biggest U.S. banks said last week that they see the U.S. economy remaining resilient, particularly because of solid spending by U.S. consumers.
“Despite geopolitical risks, the earnings recovery remains intact,” according to Morgan Stanley strategists led by Michael Wilson. It’s remained so solid that analysts have even raised their profit expectations since the war began for the spring of 2026.
Along with JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and other big banks, about 10% of companies in the S&P 500 have already reported their results for the start of 2026. Nearly nine out of 10 have delivered a bigger profit than analysts expected, according to FactSet.
If the rest of the companies in the index match analysts’ expectations, overall earnings per share for S&P 500 companies will end up 13% higher than a year earlier, according to FactSet.
That’s big because stock prices tend to follow the path of corporate profits over the long term. Other companies scheduled to report their results this week include UnitedHealth Group on Tuesday, Tesla on Wednesday and Procter & Gamble on Friday.
In stock markets abroad, indexes fell in Europe following a better finish in Asia. Germany’s DAX lost 1.2%, and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng added 0.8% for two of the world’s bigger moves.
AP Business Writers Matt Ott and Elaine Kurtenbach contributed to this report.
Trader Michael Milano, left, works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Monday, April 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
People work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Monday, April 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
People walk in front of an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei index at a securities firm Monday, April 20, 2026, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
People walk in front of an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei index at a securities firm Monday, April 20, 2026, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
A broker watches his screens at the stock market in Frankfurt, Germany, Friday, April 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Michael Probst)
Currency traders work near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), top center, and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won, top center left, at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters, in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, April 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
People stand in front of an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei index at a securities firm Monday, April 20, 2026, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
People work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Monday, April 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
