A potentially catastrophic collision was narrowly averted at Chicago’s Midway Airport on Tuesday morning when a Southwest Airlines plane and a private business jet came perilously close to each other on the runway.
Video footage shows Southwest flight 2504, arriving from Omaha, preparing to land before abruptly aborting its descent to avoid a potential collision with the business jet, which was taxiing across the runway.
According to preliminary flight data, the two aircraft were approximately 250 feet apart vertically when the Southwest 737 flew over the business jet, mere inches from the ground.
According to CBS News, an audio recording from air traffic control reveals that the private plane had been cleared to cross one runway but was instructed to hold at another.
However, the pilot of the private jet initially repeated the instructions incorrectly, prompting correction from the tower. About 30 seconds later, the Southwest pilot announced they were “going around,” indicating their decision to abort the landing.
Preliminary data from tracking site flightradar24.comindicated that the business jet was a FlexJet Bombardier Challenger heading to Knoxville, Tennessee. A Flexjet spokesperson informed CBS News that they are “aware of the occurrence” and are “working to gather more information on the situation.”
According to the Federal Aviation Administration, the business jet had “entered the runway without authorization.”