BALTIMORE — A plane nearly hit an ambulance on the runway at Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport in January, according to a Federal Aviation Administration report.
The encounter happened when a BWI Marshall Airport Fire and Rescue Department medic vehicle and firefighter crossed a runway without air traffic control authorization on Jan. 12, BWI spokesperson Jonathan Dean said.
A Boeing 737 operated by Southwest Airlines came within 200 feet of the aircraft rescue ambulance, which the report says crossed a runway due to a miscommunication with air traffic control. The ambulance had been instructed to stop prior to reaching the runway, but the driver believed they were instructed to cross it and was moving close to the runway as the plane took off at about 168 miles per hour.
