Report: Southwest jet from Omaha came within 200 feet of business jet in Chicago
Source: Omaha World Herald
Dan Crisler Mar 24, 2025 Updated 7 hrs ago
A Southwest Airlines plane, which had originated from Omaha’s Eppley Airfield, and a business jet passed within 200 feet of each other at a Chicago airport before the Southwest pilots aborted a landing last month, according to a recently released preliminary report issued by the National Transportation Safety Board.
The near-miss happened at 8:48 a.m. on Feb. 25 at Midway International Airport. According to the report, pilots of the business jet, a Bombardier Challenger 350 CL-35 operated by private airline Flexjet and carrying a single passenger, were taxiing to a runway beyond the runway where the Southwest Boeing 737-800 plane, which had 142 people on board, was cleared to land. The report noted the ground controller told the pilots to hold short of the runway where the Southwest jet was supposed to land.
The Flexjet pilots said sunlight hindered visibility. The Flexjet captain said to investigators he thought the runway that the Southwest plane was cleared for was a different runway than the the Flexjet plane had been given clearance to cross. As the Flexjet approached the runway authorized for the Southwest flight, the pilots looked left and right but did not see the Southwest plane approaching.
Despite instructions from air traffic control to hold short of the runway, the Flexjet pilots moved the plane across it.
A Southwest Airlines Boeing 737-800 had gotten as low as 25 feet from the ground before it climbed to avoid a collision with a business jet, the National Transportation Safety Board said in a preliminary report about the Feb. 25 incident at Chicago’s Midway International Airport.
NATIONAL TRANSPORTATION SAFETY BOARD
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Original link: https://omaha.com/news/local/article_15da3bc7-2325-42e7-8131-53e79fecaeaf.html
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