The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is investigating another runway incursion, this one involving a Southwest Airlines Boeing 737-700 and a single-engined Diamond DA40 at Long Beach on 19 October.
The DA40 had been stopped on Long Beach’s runway 30 when the Southwest jet landed on the same runway, according to an NTSB preliminary report released on 10 December.
The aircraft came within 857ft (261m) of each other on the same runway. The incident marks another in a slew of recent runway close calls at US airports.
The Long Beach incursion occurred after an air traffic controller at 14:45 local time cleared the pilots of the DA40 to land on Long Beach’s runway 30. The controller also instructed those pilots, after landing, to hold short of the intersecting runway 26.
A few minutes later, the same controller cleared the pilots of Southwest flight 1671, which was arriving from Oakland, to land on runway 30.
The DA40 landed first. At 14:49, its pilots informed the controller they were stopped on runway 30, holding short of runway 26, as instructed.
Meanwhile, the Southwest jet was touching down on runway 30 behind the DA40.
“As SWA1671 was completing their landing roll out on runway 30, the crew… advised the controller that there was an aircraft on runway 30,” says the NTSB’s preliminary report.
The investigation is ongoing. The report says that on 28 October an NTSB team interviewed two air traffic controllers and an operations supervisor at Long Beach.
Following numerous recent close calls, the US aviation industry, Federal Aviation Administration and NTSB have been seeking solutions to the problem of runway incursions.
In September, for instance, an Alaska Airlines 737 suffered blown tires after its pilots aborted take-off due to a Southwest 737 crossing the same runway.
In 2023, pilots of an American Airlines 777 crossed the wrong runway at New York’s John F Kennedy International, prompting the crew of a Delta Air Lines 737 to reject take-off. Also that year, a FedEx 767 nearly landed atop a Southwest 737 that was taking off from Austin.
