Crew Appears To Continue When Instructed To Hold Short Of Runway

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) Chair Jennifer Homendy stated during a television interview that the crew of a Flexjet aircraft failed to abide by a controller’s instruction to hold short of the runway that a Southwest Airlines flight was about to land on.

Fortunately, the Southwest crew was completely alert and immediately executed a go-around seconds before touching down with the Flexjet aircraft in front of it.

The Southwest aircraft cleared the runway and avoided a potentially disastrous collision between it and the Flexjet aircraft.

Homendy said during the interview that the Flexjet crew were instructed to “line up and wait and hold short of runway 31C, which Southwest was landing on, and they failed to do so."

She also noted that the NTSB must still conduct its full investigation which will include reviewing the cockpit voice and data recorders from both aircraft as well as interviews with both crews and air traffic controllers on duty at the time.

"There's a lot of information we still have to collect. We want to know what was going on in the cockpit of that airplane. We will collect air traffic control communications. We have asked for the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder from Flexjet," Homendy said.

The FAA will also be conducting its own investigation of the incident. The agency said in a preliminary statement that the “business jet entered the runway without authorization.”

Flexjet also issued a statement in which a spokesperson said, "We are aware of the occurrence today in Chicago. Flexjet adheres to the highest safety standards and we are conducting a thorough investigation. Any action to rectify and ensure the highest safety standards will be taken."

FMI:  www.ntsb.gov/