Southwest Airlines plane aborts landing after close call at Chicago airport

A Southwest Airlines plane and a private business jet narrowly avoided a collision at Chicago’s Midway Airport on Tuesday morning, CBS News has confirmed. 

Video shows Southwest flight 2504 from Omaha coming in for a landing at the airport, then quickly aborting to avoid a potential collision with the business jet that was taxiing across the runway. The Southwest flight was just inches from the ground when the pilots throttled up and climbed skyward to avoid the business jet. Seconds later, the Southwest plane flew over the business jet at an approximate altitude of 250 feet, according to preliminary flight data. 

An audio recording from air traffic control shows that the private plane had been cleared to cross one runway, but hold at another. The pilot of the private jet repeated the instructions to the tower incorrectly, and was corrected by the tower. The pilot then repeated the instructions correctly. About 30 seconds later, the Southwest pilot can be heard saying they are “going around.” 

Southwest Airlines confirmed the incident, telling CBS News that the crew of the Boeing 737 Max8 performed a “precautionary go-around to avoid a possible conflict with another aircraft that entered the runway.”

According to preliminary data from tracking site flightradar24.com, the business jet was a FlexJet Bombardier Challenger bound for Knoxville, Tennessee.

“We are aware of the occurrence today in Chicago. Flexjet adheres to the highest safety standards and we are conducting a thorough investigation,” a Flexjet spokesperson told CBS News. “Any action to rectify and ensure the highest safety standards will be taken.”

The Federal Aviation Administration said the business jet had “entered the runway without authorization.” The incident is under investigation, the FAA said. 

The Southwest flight was coming from Omaha, Nebraska. Southwest Airlines said the flight landed “without incident.” 

The incident occurred at around 8:50 a.m. local time.

Chicago Midway Airport is a hub for Southwest Airlines. The airline carries over 90% of the airport’s passengers.

Runway incursions are rare but have seen a troubling spike as air travel rapidly recovered post pandemic. In 2024, the rate of serious runway incursions decreased from a high in 2023, dropping from .4 per one million airport operations to .124 per million operations. 

“There are multiple layers of defense that generally keep our aviation system safe,” said former National Transportation Safety Board chair and CBS News transportation safety analyst Robert Sumwalt. “However, once again, we are seeing cases like this where those defenses are being bypassed and we have a close call.  Fortunately, the final layer of defense — the eyes and actions of the Southwest pilots — kept this event from being a serious accident.”