UPDATE – San Antonio International Airport has released a statement on the incident involving a Southwest 737 arriving from Oklahoma City, conducting an emergency maneuver to avoid a collision.
At approximately 3:00 pm today, Air Traffic Control (ATC) confirms that a Southwest Airlines (SWA) plane was still 4.1 miles from San Antonio International Airport when it was instructed by ATC to perform a standard procedure called a “go around maneuver” to maintain a safe distance between itself and another aircraft that was on the runway,” said Tonya Hope with San Antonio International Airport. “The SWA aircraft landed safely on the second approach without incident.
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SAN ANTONIO – A 737 airplane had a close call while landing at San Antonio International Airport late Thursday afternoon.
The plane appears to have come dangerously close to another plane that was on the runway they were about to land on. At about 3:30 p.m., the Southwest Airlines plane was about 150 feet off the ground, getting ready to land, when all of a sudden the pilot abruptly pulled the plane back up in the air. The plane then turned right, circling the area once before the pilot was able to safely land the aircraft.
A witness on the plane tells us that the pilot later said there was a plane on the runway that they were about to land on.
The Southwest Flight 576 departed from Oklahoma City earlier Thursday. At least 100 people were aboard the flight. They were able to safely get off the plane.
“Pilots are trained to perform go-arounds anytime there is an issue with an approach to landing. It’s a standard maneuver, to the point that a ‘missed-approach’ course is spelled out on the aeronautical charts for every airport. Since they happen rarely, passengers tend to notice them and ask questions. I verified with my dispatchers that the crew noted nothing usual about this flight beyond the mention that they went around and landed safely about 10 minutes later,” said Southwest Airline spokesman Lynn Lunsford.
We have reached out to the San Antonio Airport and have not yet heard back.
We also reached out the FAA for more information, but because of the lapse in funding due to the federal government shutdown, the FAA is not responding to routine media inquiries.
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They did send us a statement, “As Secretary Duffy has said, there have been increased staffing shortages across the system. When that happens, the FAA slows traffic into some airports to ensure safe operations. For real-time flight impacts at U.S. airports due to staffing, weather, or other factors, please visit www.fly.faa.gov.“