Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
ARLINGTON, Va. — An American Airlines plane arriving at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport discontinued its landing, performing a go-around at an air traffic controller's instruction to avoid getting too close to another aircraft departing from the same runway, the Federal Aviation Administration said.
The maneuver involving American Flight 2246 from Boston occurred around 8:20 a.m. Tuesday, less than two hours before another plane attempting to land at Chicago's Midway Airport was forced to climb back into the sky to avoid another aircraft crossing the runway.
Airport webcam video posted to the social media platform X shows the Southwest plane approaching a runway just before 9 a.m. Tuesday before its nose abruptly pulls up. A smaller jet is seen crossing the runway the passenger plane was set to use.
An audio recording of communication between the smaller jet and the control tower recorded its pilot misstating instructions from a ground tower employee, who repeated that the pilot should "hold short" of a runway. About 30 seconds later, the ground tower ordered the pilot "hold your position there." The tower employee is then heard saying: "FlexJet560, your instructions were to hold short of runway 31 center."
Separately, a recording of communication between the Southwest crew and another ground tower employee captured its pilot reporting "Southwest 2504 going around" and following directions to climb back to 3,000 feet.
Seconds later, the audio captures the pilot asking the tower: "Southwest 2504, how'd that happen?"
Southwest said Flight 2504 from Omaha, Nebraska, safely landed "after the crew performed a precautionary go-around to avoid a possible conflict with another aircraft that entered the runway," an airline spokesperson said in an email. "The crew followed safety procedures and the flight landed without incident."
American Airlines did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the go-around at Washington National.
The past few weeks have seen four major aviation disasters in North America. They include the Feb. 6 crash of a commuter plane in Alaska that killed all 10 people on board and the Jan. 26 midair collision between an Army helicopter and an American Airlines flight at National Airport that killed all 67 aboard the two aircraft.
A medical transport jet with a child patient, her mother and four others aboard crashed Jan. 31 into a Philadelphia neighborhood. That crash killed seven people, including all those aboard, and injured 19 others.
Twenty-one people were injured Feb. 17 when a Delta flight flipped and landed on its roof at Toronto's Pearson Airport.
