Southwest Airlines plane aborts landing to avoid colliding with private jet at Chicago Midway Airport
Written by Black Hot Fire Network on February 26, 2025
CNN
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A Southwest Airlines plane and a private jet that entered the runway without authorization experienced a close call at Chicago Midway International Airport on Tuesday morning, the Federal Aviation Administration said.
Southwest Flight 2504 landed safely at the Chicago airport after the flight crew had to perform a go-around to prevent a potential incident, according to Southwest.
The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating the incident, which took place at around 8:50 a.m. local time.
The close call comes as the two agencies are investigating a string of safety incidents in recent weeks, including the deadly midair collision over the Potomac River near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, a Medevac jet crash in Philadelphia and a regional airline crash off the coast of Nome, Alaska, that killed 10 people.
In the Chicago incident, the Southwest plane was arriving from Omaha, Nebraska, and the private jet, a Bombardier Challenger 350, was headed to Knoxville, Tennessee, according to FlightRadar24.
Air traffic control instructed the private jet to turn left on “Runway 4L, cross Runway 31L and hold short of Runway 31C,” according to audio from LiveATC.net.
The pilot replies saying, “Alright, left on 2 – uh – 4L, cross the 22, or 13C, Flexjet 560.”
Then the air traffic controller on the ground immediately replies to the pilot, “Flexjet 560, negative! Cross 31L, hold short Runway 31C.”
Air traffic control audio from the tower also shows the moment the pilot of the Southwest plane chose to perform the go-around to avoid the private jet on the runway.
Air traffic controllers reply, “-west 2504, uh, roger that. Climb, maintain 3,000.”
Once the plane reached 3,000 feet in the air, the pilot asked the tower, “Southwest 2504, uh, how’d that happen?”
“The crew followed safety procedures and the flight landed without incident,” a Southwest spokesperson said in an email to CNN. “Nothing is more important to Southwest than the safety of our customers and employees.”
“We had no idea what happened,” passenger Emily Novak told CNN affiliate WOWT. “The pilot kept everyone so calm. There was no panic on the plane at all that I noticed, like he stayed very calm, just made it seem very routine and then we saw the video, we were like, what? Honest to God had no idea that even happened.”
“I just feel very thankful for who we had flying our plane,” Novak said.
Passenger Todd Engel told WOWT he always says a prayer before traveling, and said another prayer when he felt the plane accelerating while landing.
“The pilot did come on and say there was a plane on the runway,” Engel said. “Took another 10 minutes. We had to circle back around and land, but it was pretty amazingly calm on the flight.”
US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said in a statement on X, “It is imperative that pilots follow the instructions of air traffic controllers. If they do not, their licenses will be pulled.” Duffy said he would provide additional updates when they become available.
Flexjet, the company operating the Bombardier Challenger 350, is “aware of the occurrence” in Chicago and “was working to gather more information on this situation,” a spokesperson said in a statement. The private jet can seat up to 9 passengers, according to configurations posted on Flexjet’s website.
The planes came as close as approximately 2,050 feet before the Southwest plane initiated the go-around, according to FlightRadar24.
The Southwest plane flew over the private jet at an uncorrected pressure altitude of 900 feet, which was approximately 250 feet above ground after adjusting for pressure and elevation, FlightRadar24 said.
Between January 2023 and September 2024, the NTSB investigated 13 runway incursions involving commercial, or for-hire, flights. Those incursions varied in category from some with “no immediate safety consequences” to “narrowly” avoiding a collision.
CNN’s Andy Rose, Sara Smart, Sharif Paget, Taliah Miller and Pete Muntean contributed to this report.
