The pilots of a Southwest Airlines flight that was coming into land at Chicago Midway on Tuesday were forced to take evasive action to avoid colliding with a private jet that taxied across the runway just as the Boeing 737 was about to touchdown.
Southwest flight WN-2504 departed Omaha at around 7:45 am on February 25, and following an otherwise uneventful flight, the pilots were just about to land the aircraft on Runway 31C at Midway (MDW) when they spotted the Challenger 350 private jet operated by FlexJet.
An airport webcam caught the dramatic moment when the pilots of Southwest Flight 2504 performed a ‘go around’ and quickly started climbing in order to avoid a potential collision with the private jet that had crossed in front of it.
Southwest Airlines did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said in a statement: “The crew of Southwest Airlines Flight 2504 initiated a go-around when a business jet entered the runway without authorization at Chicago Midway Airport.”
The statement continued: “The FAA is investigating the incident, which occurred around 8:50 a.m. local time on Tuesday, Feb. 25.”
Following the go-around, the pilots entered into a short holding pattern, during which time one of the flight crew asked air traffic control: “How did that happen?”
The control tower ignored the pilot’s question and directed him to switch communication to another channel that deals with the landing phase of the flight.
Preliminary reports suggest that the pilots of the business jet had not been given permission to cross Runway 31C and had, instead, been requested to hold short of the runway.
At the time of the incident, the Southwest Airlines aircraft was in flare and just 500 feet from the ground.
Last December, it was revealed that a Southwest Airlines Boeing 737-700 landed on a runway at Long Beach Airport that was still occupied by a private Diamond DA40 single-engine light aircraft.
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 held short of an intersecting runway because another aircraft was due to cross.
Although the Southwest plane landed on the runway while still occupied, it had already slowed down to taxiing speed well before it reached the light aircraft and was able to turn off the runway before reaching the single-engine aircraft.
