Near miss at Chicago Midway

[Denali]

Another near miss yesterday? I wonder if this happens more than we realise. Southwest and private jet crossing paths on landing

347K views · 4.8K reactions | 🚨🚨#BREAKING: Earlier this morning at Midway Airport in Chicago a near miss occurred between a landing Southwest Airlines aircraft, N8517F as SWA2504, and a private jet. Another near miss—aviation safety under scrutiny

🚨🚨#BREAKING: Earlier this morning at Midway Airport in Chicago a near miss occurred between a landing Southwest Airlines aircraft, N8517F as SWA2504, and a private jet. Another near miss—aviation...

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[Pushka]

Another near miss yesterday? I wonder if this happens more than we realise. Southwest and private jet crossing paths on landing

347K views · 4.8K reactions | 🚨🚨#BREAKING: Earlier this morning at Midway Airport in Chicago a near miss occurred between a landing Southwest Airlines aircraft, N8517F as SWA2504, and a private jet. Another near miss—aviation safety under scrutiny

🚨🚨#BREAKING: Earlier this morning at Midway Airport in Chicago a near miss occurred between a landing Southwest Airlines aircraft, N8517F as SWA2504, and a private jet. Another near miss—aviation...

www.facebook.com

I think everything seems to happen more regularly than ever before but not because of frequency but reporting.

Internet and immediate reporting and twitter.
Plus every younger generation seems to think that things have never happened before and the world needs to know their discovery. Hence research that proves things every generation before them already knew.

 

[elanshin]

Very close miss and quick go around decision by WN pilots at Chicago Midway today. Looked like the Southwest plane almost had wheels down before they pulled back up and overflew the Flexjet that crossed onto their runway. Seems the Flexjet crossed onto RWY 31C without clearance.

Southwest flight nearly collides with jet at Chicago's Midway Airport

Video showed Southwest Flight 2504 nearly touching down on the runway before lifting off again to avoid a jet that entered the runway.

www.nbcnews.com

VAS aviation's ATC:

 

[prozac]

Another near miss yesterday? I wonder if this happens more than we realise. Southwest and private jet crossing paths on landing

347K views · 4.8K reactions | 🚨🚨#BREAKING: Earlier this morning at Midway Airport in Chicago a near miss occurred between a landing Southwest Airlines aircraft, N8517F as SWA2504, and a private jet. Another near miss—aviation safety under scrutiny

🚨🚨#BREAKING: Earlier this morning at Midway Airport in Chicago a near miss occurred between a landing Southwest Airlines aircraft, N8517F as SWA2504, and a private jet. Another near miss—aviation...

www.facebook.com

Mid-80s flying BME-PER in a Citation jet. About to put wheels on the runway PER when a light aircraft ventured out onto the runway. Pilot reacted simultaneously putting on the power and pulling the yoke back hard. Felt like we went vertical, though we didn't of-course.

 

[RooFlyer]

Juan Browne Blancolirio analysis

The Flexjet guy not only disobeyed 'hold short' command that he acknowledged when he was told AND obviously didn't bother looking out the window as he crossed an active runway. Even if you don't think its active, don't you check? JB shows how dozy that pilot was from the outset.

 

[elanshin]

I wonder if any of the pilots could tell us if it would be significantly slower/harder for a go around if the wheels are on the ground.

 

[justinbrett]

Juan Browne Blancolirio analysis

The Flexjet guy not only disobeyed 'hold short' command that he acknowledged when he was told AND obviously didn't bother looking out the window as he crossed an active runway. Even if you don't think its active, don't you check? JB shows how dozy that pilot was from the outset.

Taxiing on runways is a bad idea, here it’s not supposed to be done when there’s an available taxiway even if less convenient.

There’s no standard holding point markings between the runways (just the normal runway side stripe markings) and it can be easy to become disoriented especially with two parallel runways close together as these were.

My generous observation is he probably through the first runway (31L) was a taxiway (that runway is very narrow, about the same width as a taxiway) and thought the 31C runway was the one he was cleared to cross. I’d assume he was not a local pilot so not overly familiar with the airfield.

Possibly a better idea to keep the aircraft off the runways and give the cross for both runways together considering they are so close.

 

[Himeno]

looks like a confusing airfield

 

[RooFlyer]

looks like a confusing airfield

The 2 lines of 'caution' above 'AIRPORT DIAGRAM' would seem to be pertinent!

 

[JohnM]

Hoover covers it thoroughly:

 

[Quickstatus]

FAA statistics on US runway incursions 2024

Not all are serious or close calls though

 

[TomVexille]

From what I can tell they have rolled straight through the hold short line that tells them what runway they are about to cross

 

[drron]

All I can say is thank goodness the SW pilots were very attentive and their quick reaction saved the day.
The ATC recordings have been released and the Flexjet plane was told twice to cross 31 left then hold at 31 centre.

T

 

[justinbrett]

From what I can tell they have rolled straight through the hold short line that tells them what runway they are about to cross


View attachment 433188

No you're looking at the wrong part of the airfield. That is a taxiway (Y) you are looking it.

They were on a runway (22R) crossing another runway (31L/C). Here is what it looked like:



They were on taxiway F (purple circle), cleared to enter runway 22R, cross the runway 31L (green circle) but should have held short of the red line (runway 31C). As you can see (and as I mentioned above) they don't paint holding points on runways to other runways. When you get a take off or landing clearance you don't need permission to cross other runways so it's not normally an issue.

For as much as some one here are making the pilot out to be an absolute clown, while he's definitely in the wrong it's easy to see how this can happen if you're not familiar with the airfield. I'm not entirely sure it's possible to cross 31L and hold short of 31C, as you'd be stuck in the middle of 31L (which you can't do with a cross clearance). That is bad ATC.

 

[JohnM]

As you can see (and as I mentioned above) they don't paint holding points on runways to other runways. When you get a take off or landing clearance you don't need permission to cross other runways so it's not normally an issue.

That assertion seems inconsistent with Hoover's (Pilot Debrief) description I posted at post #10.

If you watch that from about the 5 minute mark, and especially from about 5:55, apparently there are holding marks on the runway that don't show on outdated satellite imagery.

 

[Quickstatus]

Would holding short of 31C causing the tail to be on 31L be legal if 31L was not in use?

 

[justinbrett]

That assertion seems inconsistent with Hoover's (Pilot Debrief) description I posted at post #10.

If you watch that from about the 5 minute mark, and especially from about 5:55, apparently there are holding marks on the runway that don't show on outdated satellite imagery.

OK interesting, that is not standard to put markings on the runway unless it is LAHSO (that's a whole other thing that I won't get into here). And obviously the sat image isn't that old on google - so must be relatively new, and more subtle than the standard markings with the runway numbers painted red.

Still your video's assessment is pretty much the same as what I was saying, he didn't see the small runway (looks like a taxiway) and thought he was crossing the big one.

Would holding short of 31C causing the tail to be on 31L be legal if 31L was not in use?

All runways are "in use" unless decommissioned. So no, it's not legal to block a runway even if it's not the active runway. That said, it was the instruction from ATC so it's not really the pilots fault if that happens, it's up to ATC to resolve it.