Flight Emergency/Twitter
Tragedy was narrowly avoided at Chicago Midway Airport on Tuesday when an airliner aborted its landing to avoid a private jet moving across the runway.
In the footage posted by the X/Twitter account @FlightEmergency, a Southwest Airlines plane can be seen attempting to land at Chicago Midway. While just inches away from the ground, however, the plane suddenly pulled up to abort the landing. Moments later, a much smaller private jet came into view on the left side of the screen. The jet was taxiing across the runway — directly into the path of the Southwest plane.
Had the airliner not pulled up, it looked as though it would have struck the jet. The incident, according to the timestamp located at the top of the screen, occurred 8:48 a.m. local time.
In an archived feed of the air traffic control communication, the Southwest plane — identified by the call sign 2504 — told ATC it would be “going around.” In response, the air traffic controller instructed the plane to maintain an altitude of 3,000 feet.
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About 45 seconds later, the pilot reached out to ATC with a troubling question.
“This is 2504,” the pilot said. “How’d that happen?”
Hours later, the Federal Aviation Administration released a statement announcing the incident was under investigation. The FAA also revealed in the statement that the private jet “entered the runway without authorization.”
The incident was the latest in a string of incidents that have plagued the FAA in recent weeks.