A Southwest Airlines flight was forced to abort its landing at Chicago’s Midway Airport on February 25, 2025, after a business jet entered the runway without authorisation, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said.
The incident occurred at 8:50am local time, when Southwest Airlines flight 2504, a 737-800 aircraft operating a flight from Omaha, Nebraska, imitated a go-around after a FlexJet Challenger, which was operating a service to Knoxville, Tennessee, entered the runway as the Southwest plane was about to touch down.
Webcam footage posted to X captured the incident in full, showing the Bombardier business jet cross the runway as the 737-800 begins to abort its landing. According to data from Flightradar24, approximately 2,050 ft separated the two aircraft before the Southwest jet initiated its go around at approximately 50 ft.
US Transport Secretary Sean Duffy said it is “imperative” that pilots follow the instructions of air traffic controllers. If they do not, their licenses will be pulled, he added.
Both the FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) will investigate the near miss.
This latest incident follows a spate of aviation accidents in North America over the last month. On January 29, a collision involving an American Airlines passenger jet and a US Army Black Hawk helicopter in Washington, D.C., took the lives of 67 people. A medical jet crash on February 1, in Philadelphia killed seven, and a plane crash in Alaska resulted in ten fatalities on February 6, 2025.
Most recently 21 people were injured after a Delta Air Lines regional flight flipped upside down after crash landing at Toronto Pearson International Airport on February 17, 2025.
This latest incident in Chicago comes days after a collation of aviation stakeholders called on the US Congress to provide additional funding for air traffic control (ATC) staffing.
The collation which is led by industry trade organisation Airlines for America, which represents the likes of American Airlines, Delta and Southwest, said support is needed for ATC workforce hiring and training, in addition to the modernisation and deployment of state-of-the-art ATC facilities and equipment.
A US House of Representatives panel is set to hold a hearing on March 4, 2025, relating to ATC issues.