FAA: Southwest plane rolls off taxiway at Nashville airport, injuring 8
NASHVILLE — A Southwest plane from Houston rolled off a taxiway into the grass and got stuck in a ditch at the Nashville International Airport on Tuesday, injuring at least eight people, authorities said.
FAA spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen said Southwest Flight 31, a Boeing 737, rolled off taxiway T4 near the terminal into the grass and got stuck. Nashville fire department crews were dispatched to the airport at 5:43 p.m. CT.
Southwest officials said the plane that carried 133 passengers and five crew members departed from Houston Hobby Airport at 4 p.m.
Passengers left the aircraft via its stairs and were taken to the terminal in a bus, Bergen said.
Fire spokesman Brian Haas said three ambulances transported eight people to TriStar Summit Medical Center.
Most of those passengers suffered minor injuries, mostly bumps and bruises, Haas said, and one person was suffering from chest pains.
Reginald Smith Jr., who was on the plane, called the landing frightening.
"We landed, we were coasting and then we were bouncing up and down and the next thing you know ... it felt as if we were about to topple over as we were going into the ditch," said Smith as he stood inside the airport terminal. "You could feel the plane hit and stop. It was terrifying."
Smith, who said he flew from Houston to sing in the Nashville Symphony, said after the crash that many passengers on the plane quickly helped crew members assist elderly and disabled passengers off the plane.
Another passenger, Andy Borchers, said the plane's emergency lights lit after the plane hit the ditch, crew members opened an emergency door and everyone on board slid down one-by-one.
“There was no urgency, we weren’t moving at a high speed,” Borchers said. “Everyone was in pretty good spirits,” he said. “But the flight attendants were shaken up.”
The incident remains under investigation by the FAA.