Aviation accident investigators are probing an incident at Long Beach Airport that occurred in October when a Southwest Airlines Boeing 737-700 landed on a runway that was still occupied by a private Diamond DA40 single-engine light aircraft.
Although the incident took place nearly two months ago, it is only now coming to light after the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) published its preliminary report on what happened.
Southwest Airlines flight WN1671 was landing at Long Beach after a short and otherwise uneventful one-hour flight from San Francisco on October 19 when the local air traffic control cleared the pilots to land on Runway 30.
Unbeknownst to the pilots of the Southwest plane, the Diamond DA40 had already been cleared to land on the same runway and then hold short of an intersecting runway because another aircraft was due to cross.
At around 2:49 pm, the crew of the private single-engine aircraft informed air traffic control that they were holding short of the intersecting runway as advised by the local controller.
Just 15 seconds later, the pilots of the Southwest plane advised the local controller that there was an aircraft on the same runway that they had just landed on. Thankfully, by this point, the Southwest plane had already slowed down to taxiing speed and was able to turn off the runway before reaching the single-engine aircraft.
Both planes were able to taxi to their respective parking positions without incident.
The NTSB says that the investigation includes representatives from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), as well as the National Air Traffic Controllers Association. The local controller involved in the incident has already been interviewed by investigators.
The preliminary report acts as a statement of facts of what occurred on the date of the incident and does not aim to establish a cause of the near-miss or point a finger of blame.
Some larger US airports have radar-based ground collision detection systems that are designed to automatically alert air traffic controllers if a plane has been cleared to take off or land on a runway that is occupied by another aircraft.
Some medium-sized airports are getting a new technology called the Surface Awareness Initiative (SAI) system ADS-B data to show aircraft on a detailed map of the runways and taxiways.
SAI has already been rolled out at Austin-Bergstrom, Indianapolis, Nashville and Dallas Love Field, and the FAA hopes to have “scores” of other airports across the United States equipped with the system in 2025.
In September, it was revealed that Southwest was calling thousands of pilots into its headquarters to give them an additional day’s worth of safety training following a spate of near misses and safety incidents.
The decision to give pilots additional training input came just months after the FAA opened a safety audit of Southwest following the rash of close calls.
In one incident, a Southwest Airlines aircraft took off over an ambulance that had accidentally driven onto the runway at Baltimore International Airport, while in another, a packed Southwest jet took off from a closed runway at Portland International Jetport (PWM) in Maine and narrowly avoided colliding with an airport ground vehicle that was carrying out an inspection of the runway before it was due to open.
Just days before this incident, another Southwest airplane flying from Las Vegas to Oklahoma City descended to just 500 feet above ground level while still nine miles out from landing at OKC airport.
At the end of May, a fourth Southwest plane experienced a so-called Dutch Roll during a flight from Phoenix to Oakland, causing enough damage to keep the aircraft grounded in Oakland for several days before being flown to Everett for further repairs.
