A Southwest Airlines Boeing 737-800 was forced to abort its landing and perform a go-around after a Flexjet Bombardier Challenger 350 business jet crossed an active runway at Chicago Midway International Airport on Tuesday morning.
Flight WN-2504, arriving from Omaha, Nebraska, was in the final moments of landing on Runway 31C at approximately 8:48 a.m. local time when the crew initiated the emergency maneuver, climbing sharply to avoid a potential collision with the business jet that had entered the runway without proper clearance.
According to air traffic control recordings obtained from LiveATC.net, the Flexjet crew had been explicitly instructed by ground control to “hold short of Runway 31C” but failed to comply with these instructions.
“Flexjet 560, your instructions were to hold short of Runway 31C,” the ground controller stated after the incident, as heard in the audio recordings. The controller then issued a “possible pilot deviation” notice and provided a phone number for the crew to contact tower officials.
Flight tracking data from FlightRadar24 showed the Southwest jet descended to an altitude of just 50 feet before abandoning its landing when it was approximately 2,050 feet away from the business jet. As the airliner ascended, it passed over the smaller aircraft at an altitude of only 250 feet.
The Southwest flight successfully landed on its second approach about 15 minutes after the incident. None of the passengers or crew on either aircraft were injured.
“The crew followed safety procedures, and the flight landed without incident,” a Southwest spokesperson stated in an email sent to CNN. “Nothing is more important to Southwest than the safety of our customers and employees.”
Flexjet, which manages the Challenger 350 on a fractional ownership basis, acknowledged the incident in a statement: “Flexjet adheres to the highest safety standards, and we are conducting a thorough investigation. Any action to rectify and ensure the highest safety standards will be taken.”
Both the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) have launched investigations into the incident.
A dramatic video of the near-miss was captured by airport cameras and has since circulated widely on social media, showing the Southwest jet pulling up sharply just before what could have been a catastrophic collision.
The incident comes amid heightened scrutiny of aviation safety following several recent incidents, including a deadly midair collision over the Potomac River, a fatal Medevac jet crash in Philadelphia, and a regional airline crash off Alaska that killed 10 people.
Between January 2023 and September 2024, the NTSB has investigated 13 runway incursions involving commercial flights, with incidents ranging from those with “no immediate safety consequences” to others that “narrowly” avoided collisions.
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