CBS News confirmed that Southwest Airlines planes and civilian business jets narrowly avoided a collision at Chicago’s Midway International Airport on Tuesday morning.
In the video, Southwest Flight 2504 from Omaha comes to land at the airport and will immediately cancel it to avoid a potential collision with a business jet taxiing across the runway. Southwest Flight was just inches off the ground as the pilots slotted up and climbed into the sky to avoid business jets. A few seconds later, the southwest plane flew a business jet at an approximate altitude of 250 feet, according to spare flight data.
Audio recordings from air traffic control show that a private plane was cleared to cross one runway, but still holds another runway. The private jet pilot mistakenly repeated instructions to the tower, and was corrected by the tower. The pilot then reiterated the instructions correctly. About 30 seconds later, the Southwest pilot can say “turning around.”
Southwest Airlines confirmed the incident and told CBS News that the Boeing 737 Max8 crew had “taken precautions to avoid conflict with another aircraft that entered the runway.” .
StreamTimelive
According to preliminary data from tracking site Flightradar24.com, the business jet was a FlexJet Bombardier Challenger tied up in Knoxville, Tennessee.
“We are aware of the outbreak in Chicago today. FlexJet adheres to the highest safety standards and conducts thorough investigations,” a FlexJet spokesperson told CBS News. “Measures to ensure the highest safety standards are taken.”
The Federal Aviation Administration said the business jet “entered the runway without permission.” The incident is under investigation, the FAA said.
Southwest Flight was from Omaha, Nebraska. Southwest Airlines said the flight had landed “without any issues.”
The incident occurred around 8:50am local time.
Chicago Midway Airport is a Southwest Airlines hub. Airlines carry more than 90% of airport passengers.
Runway intrusions are rare, but we see nasty spikes as the air recovered rapidly after the pandemic. In 2024, the proportion of severe runway invasions fell from the 2023 high to 0.4 per million airport operations to .124 per million operations, from 0.4 per million.
“There are generally multiple layers of defense to keep our aviation systems safe,” said former National Road Safety Commission Chairman and CBS News Transportation Safety Analyst Robert Samwald. “But again, we see cases like this where these defenses are bypassed and there are close calls. Fortunately, the final layer of defense – the eyes and actions of the Southwest pilot – is what happens when this event is We’ve tried not to get into a serious accident.”
