NTSB blames private jet's crew for near-miss at Chicago airport

The head of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has pinned blame on the near-collision at a Chicago airport earlier this week on the crew of the private jet that passed in front of a landing Southwest flight.

“We don't believe that this was an air traffic control issue. It appears this was a failure of the flight crew from Flexjet to listen and abide by the instructions of air traffic control,” NTSB chair Jennifer Homendy said Wednesday on "Fox & Friends.”

“They were supposed to line up and wait and hold short of runway 31C, which Southwest was landing on, and they failed to do so,” the NTSB head added.

On Tuesday, a Southwest passenger plane flying from Omaha to Chicago nearly crashed into a taxiing Flexjet business jet at Midway International Airport.

“The crew of Southwest Airlines Flight 2504 initiated a go-around when a business jet entered the runway without authorization at Chicago Midway Airport,” the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said in a statement, adding it is investigating the incident.

As the Southwest aircraft was about to land on the 31C runway, the Flexjet plane passed in front of it, causing the commercial plane to quickly rise upwards.

“The crew followed safety procedures and the flight landed without incident,” Southwest said in an emailed statement.

The NTSB is conducting its own investigation into the incident and has asked both companies for recordings of the cockpits, Homendy said Wednesday.

“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 Flex Jet. We've also asked for the flight data recorder from Southwest,” she said on Fox News.

“We'll have to do some interviews and that's part of our investigative process. So a lot more to come,” the NTSB head added.

Flexjet, through a spokesperson, said the airline “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,” the spokesperson added.

The near-collision is the latest in a series of aviation mishaps that have occurred in the recent weeks and came on the heels of two Delta Airlines jets having smokiness aboard on Monday, with one having to return to Atlanta while the other declared emergency prior to landing in Puerto Rico.

President Trump also weighed in on the potential collision in Illinois, praising the Southwest pilots for doing a “GREAT JOB.”

“A NEARLY TRAGIC CLOSE CALL. PERHAPS SUSPEND THE PILOTS LICENSE OF THE OTHER PLANE, WHO MUST HAVE BEEN "SLEEPING,” the president wrote in a Truth Social post.

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