Southwest Plane Nearly Collides with Private Jet on Chicago Runway, Aborts Landing to Avoid Crash

A Southwest flight had to pull up to avoid a crash seconds before touching down in Chicago.

The incident occurred on Tuesday, Feb. 25 at Chicago Midway International Airport, CNN reports. In the above video of the event, the aircraft can be seen making its final approach, its wheels nearly touching the tarmac, before suddenly accelerating back up into the sky.

The flight was forced to perform what’s called a go-around, in which it halts the landing process and loops the airport to make another attempt at landing. This can occur at various points in the landing procedure and occasionally will see the aircraft get very close to the runway before pulling back up into the air. The maneuver, which can look like a takeoff, is required if the conditions for landing are deemed unsafe by the pilot and Air Traffic Control.

In this case, the flight, Southwest 2504, would have collided with a private jet that was in its path on the tarmac had it gone through with the landing. Thankfully, the passenger jet was able to avoid an accident and later landed safely, Southwest confirmed to CNN.

Southwest did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment, but told the outlet, “The crew followed safety procedures and the flight landed without incident,” adding “Nothing is more important to Southwest than the safety of our customers and employees.”

The news comes less than a month after the deadly collision of an American Airlines flight and an Army Black Hawk helicopter as the former was landing at Washington D.C.’s Ronald Reagan International Airport.

A 2023 investigation by the New York Times warned of a dangerous increase in — and worrisome underreporting of — near collisions at U.S. airports.

The report noted an alarming uptick in close calls happening between planes, both in the sky and on the tarmac, including why they happen and why the public often doesn’t know about them.

According to the investigation, incidents involving aircrafts nearly coming into contact with one another have seen a rapid rise across the country, involving almost every airport and major airline.

The report cited a lack of warning systems at airports coupled with a staffing shortage of air traffic controllers as some of the main contributing factors to these near-catastrophes that happen, on average, multiple times a week.