A Southwest Airlines plane narrowly avoided a collision when it landed on a runway that already had a plane on it
JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images
- Two planes narrowly avoided hitting each other in an October incident in Long Beach.
- A Southwest Airlines jet was cleared to land on a runway that had another plane on it.
- The incident was revealed in a preliminary NTSB report published this week.
A Southwest Airlines jet avoided disaster after it landed on a runway that already had a plane on it.
The incident occurred in Long Beach in October, although the National Transportation Safety Board published its preliminary report into the incident this week.
The Southwest Boeing 737, arriving from Oakland, was cleared to land on runway 30 at Long Beach Airport — although it was occupied by another plane.
A Diamond DA40, a four-seater light aircraft, had just arrived from Camarillo airport.
The NTSB report said that the smaller plane's crew was cleared to land on runway 30 and to hold short of an intersecting runway.
They requested to circle around and land on the other runway, but the air traffic controller denied their request.
About three minutes later, the Southwest flight was cleared to land on the same runway.
The controller provided the crew with a traffic advisory about a Cessna landing on runway 26.
As it was landing, the crew told ATC that there was another plane on the runway.
They came within 857 feet of each other. But the Southwest jet slowed down in time before both aircraft taxied to their requested parking areas without further incident.
Because the NTSB's report is preliminary, it does not aim to establish a cause of the incident but rather gives a statement of facts.
This isn't the first time that a plane has ended up on an already occupied runway.
In 2023, a JetBlue pilot taking off in Colorado made a quick maneuver to avoid a smaller plane coming in to land.