Some on Southwest flight said they had no idea about aborted landing at Midway until hours later
Emily Novak and Caley Maszk were on the plane
By Marissa Sulek
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CHICAGO (WBBM) — Passengers on a Southwest Airlines flight trying to land at Midway International Airport didn’t even find out about a close call with a private business jet on the runway until hours later.
Some people onboard said they didn’t know what happened until they got to their destinations.
Video shows Southwest flight 2504 from Omaha coming in for a landing at the airport, then quickly aborting to avoid a potential collision with the business jet that was taxiing across the runway. The Southwest flight was just inches from the ground when the pilots throttled up and climbed skyward to avoid the business jet — which preliminary data show was a FlexJet Bombardier Challenger bound for Knoxville, Tennessee.
Seconds later, the Southwest plane flew over the business jet at an approximate altitude of 250 feet, according to preliminary flight data.
An audio recording from air traffic control shows that the private plane had been cleared to cross one runway, but hold at another. The pilot of the private jet repeated the instructions to the tower incorrectly, and was corrected by the tower. The pilot then repeated the instructions correctly. About 30 seconds later, the Southwest pilot can be heard saying they are “going around.”
The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating after the business jet entered the runway without authorization.
Emily Novak and Caley Maszk were on the plane, Southwest Flight 2504. They were flying from Omaha for a layover at Midway before continuing to Dallas.
They took a photo of the city outside their window minutes before the Delta plane nearly hit the private jet on the runway.
“Honestly, it was such a calm situation,” said Novak.
Novak and Maszk said there were about 100 people on the Southwest plane, and most did not know the severity of what had happened.
“Right as we were about to hit the ground, we just started taking off again,” Novak said. “We didn’t know the situation at all, actually, until we got to Dallas.”
Pilot and former air traffic controller Rob Mark said what the pilot did was a textbook “perfect go-around.” Southwest added its crew performed a “precautionary go-around to avoid the other aircraft.”
Mark said the private jet pilot likely did not look both ways before crossing the runway.
“They would have absolutely seen the Southwest jet about to land on the runway, because the visibility is incredible today,” Mark said.
As for Novak and Maszk, they said they were already nervous flying after serious accidents have made headlines in the U.S. and Canada lately.
“I think if were to know what happened, and then had to go fly to Dallas, I think I would have been very anxious,” Maszk said.
These incidents have included a deadly airplane and Black Hawk helicopter collision over Washington, D.C., a Delta Air Lines flight crash-landing upside-down in Toronto, and just this week, another Delta flight making an emergency landing in Atlanta due to “possible smoke” in the cabin.”
After the near-miss at Midway Tuesday, Novak and Maszk said they are grateful — and they had a message for the pilot and crew.
“Thank you,” Nowak said. “We are so lucky that we had the pilot and crew that we did — so lucky.”
Transportation experts said flying is still very safe, and these separate individual incidents do not follow any pattern.
Flexjet, the company that was in charge of the private jet, said it is investigating and will do what is needed to rectify the situation.
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