Southwest Airlines flight abruptly rises to avoid another plane crossing
Chicago runway
 [February 26, 2025]
By COREY WILLIAMS and KATHLEEN FOODY
CHICAGO (AP) — Pilots on a Southwest Airlines flight attempting to land
at Chicago's Midway Airport were forced to climb back into the sky to
avoid another aircraft crossing the runway on Tuesday morning.
Airport webcam video posted to X shows the Southwest plane approaching a
runway just before 9 a.m. Tuesday before its nose abruptly pulls up. A
smaller jet is seen crossing the runway that the passenger plane was set
to use.
Southwest Flight 2504 safely landed “after the crew performed a
precautionary go-around to avoid a possible conflict with another
aircraft that entered the runway,” an airline spokesperson said in an
email. “The crew followed safety procedures and the flight landed
without incident."
Audio recording of communication between the smaller jet and the control
tower recorded its pilot misstating instructions from a ground tower
employee, who repeated that the pilot should “hold short” of a runway.
About 30 seconds later, the ground tower ordered the pilot “hold your
position there.”
The tower employee is then heard saying: “FlexJet560, your instructions
were to hold short of runway 31 center.”
Separately, a recording of communication between the Southwest crew and
another ground tower employee captured its pilot reporting “Southwest
2504 going around” and following directions to climb back to 3,000 feet.
Seconds later, the audio captures the pilot asking the tower: “Southwest
2504, how’d that happen?”
The second plane, described as a business jet, entered the runway
without authorization, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
Flexjet, the plane's owner, said the company is aware “of the occurrence
in Chicago."
“Flexjet adheres to the highest safety standards and we are conducting a
thorough investigation,” a spokesperson said in a statement. "Any action
to rectify and ensure the highest safety standards will be taken.”
Both the FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board say they are
investigating the incident.
The Southwest Flight was en route to Midway Airport from Omaha,
Nebraska, according to FlightAware.
Air traffic control audio makes clear that the business jet failed to
heed clear instruction not to cross the runway, said Jeff Guzzetti, a
former NSTB member and former FAA investigator.
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The air traffic control tower stands at Chicago's Midway
International Airport, March 12, 2013. (AP Photo/M. Spencer Green,
File)
Guzzetti called it a “very serious runway incursion,” but added:
“However, the sky is not falling because last year was the lowest
recorded number of serious runway incursions in a decade.”
There were 22 of these serious events in 2023, but just seven in
2024, he said, citing FAA data.
There can be several factors that contribute to these incidents,
Guzzetti said: “Was the crew distracted? Was the controller
overworked?”
U.S. Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy said Tuesday afternoon
on X that while the NTSB and the FAA are investigating, one thing is
clear: “However, it is imperative that pilots follow the
instructions of air traffic controllers. If they do not, their
licenses will be pulled.”
John Goglia, a former NTSB member, said the near-crash shows “the
system worked exactly as it was designed to.”
That is because the Southwest pilot was aware that the other plane
wasn’t going to stop in time, he said.
In probing the incident, investigators will likely look at factors
including how well-staffed the tower was and whether instructions
coming out of the tower were clear, he said.
“Those things do happen,” he said, citing possible miscommunication,
including a pilot mishearing instructions.
The past few weeks have seen four major aviation disasters in North
America. They include the Feb. 6 crash of a commuter plane in Alaska
that killed all 10 people on board and the Jan. 26 midair collision
between an Army helicopter and an American Airlines flight at
Washington’s Ronald Reagan National Airport that killed all 67
aboard the two aircraft.
A medical transport jet with a child patient, her mother and four
others aboard crashed Jan. 31 into a Philadelphia neighborhood. That
crash killed seven people, including all those aboard, and injured
19 others.
Twenty-one people were injured Feb. 17 when a Delta flight flipped
and landed on its roof at Toronto’s Pearson Airport.
___
Williams reported from Detroit. Associated Press writer Jennifer
Sinco Kelleher in Honolulu contributed to this report.
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