The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is investigating a near collision between a Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 and a Cessna Citation business jet in San Diego.
Incident Details
On Friday, just before 12 p.m. PDT, an air traffic controller at San Diego International Airport cleared the Citation to land on a runway already assigned to Southwest Airlines Flight 2493. The controller then alerted the Cessna to discontinue landing after receiving an automated surface surveillance system warning. A person briefed on the matter reported the Cessna passed over the Southwest airplane by about 100 feet.
Southwest aircraft, a Boeing 737-700 with registration N7734H, continued its departing procedure and landed in San Jose 58 minutes later.
FAA’s Investigation
The FAA is sending a team to investigate. According to Reuters reports, Southwest commented “Our aircraft departed without event and the flight operated normally, with a safe landing in San Jose as scheduled.”
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is investigating six runway incursion events since January, including a near-collision in Austin, Texas, between a FedEx cargo plane and a Southwest Boeing 737.
Previous NTSB Cited Incidents
On Thursday, the NTSB cited a near-collision due to a Learjet 60 charter pilot’s failure to get a takeoff clearance in Boston. In this incident, the JetBlue Embraer 190 was 30 feet above ground when it broke off the landing.
