A Southwest Airlines pilot narrowly averted disaster this morning when their Boeing 737-800 (registration N8517F) was preparing to land at Chicago Midway airport. Flight 2504 from Omaha was in the gradual pitch-up just prior to touchdown when it initiated a go around as a business jet crossed the runway. The plane climbed out, and landed safely 15 minutes later.

Private jet causes Southwest to go around at Midway today. It crossed the runway while Southwest was landing.
byu/sq_lp inaviation

The Bombardier Challenger 35 was preparing for departure from runway 22L when it crossed runway 31C – despite being instructed to hold short of that runway. The Southwest crew saw this, reported they were going around, even before air traffic control instructed them to do so. The pilots of the Bombardier business jet were given a phone number to contact for pilot deviation.

Flight 2405 had been just a few feet above the runway and around 1,500 feet short of the intersection when it climbed out to avoid the private plane. Flexjet 600 can be heard having difficulty reading back instructions, and did not follow the admonition to ‘hold short’.

Here’s air traffic control for Southwest 2504. You’ll find the go around at the 18 minute 1 second mark. The matter-of-fact calmness of the pilot is amazing here.

The Southwest pilots did a fantastic job here in avoiding catastrophe. Air traffic control doesn’t appear to have erred. However, antiquated technology and a 1920s ATC approach set us up for these recurring incidents.