The near-collision at Midway Airport on Tuesday wasn’t the only close call in the Chicago region in recent years.
Two airplanes in the skies near O’Hare Airport came dangerously close to each other in 2019 in an incident caught by a passerby on camera. In that incident in the early afternoon of March 1, 2019, the planes had each taken off from parallel runways, heading east, when one of them inexplicably turned toward the other.
Both pilots quickly took evasive action.
“Envoy Airlines Flight 3603 departed the Chicago O’Hare International Airport, began a left turn without approval, and conflicted with American Airlines Flight 272 on March 1, 2019,” a spokesperson for the Federal Aviation Administration — the federal agency that regulates U.S. airspace, airports and airlines — said recently.
“Air Traffic Control immediately issued corrective instructions and deconflicted both aircraft.”
“The aircraft were 0.29 miles apart at the same latitude.”
That’s roughly 500 yards, which could be closed in seconds depending on air speeds, altitudes and angles.
FAA officials wouldn’t go into further details, but said, “Under our Compliance Program, we may address inadvertent errors through education or training.”
A witness who was driving a car near Rosemont at the time of the incident told the Chicago Sun-Times back then, “I noticed two planes taking off, and I thought . . . that’s so unusual they’re so close.”
The planes were gaining altitude but parallel when the aircraft to the south “banks left” so that it was headed into the path of the other plane, he said.
“The one to the north is still going straight,” though trailing the other aircraft and slightly lower, he said. Almost immediately, “The one to the south banks a hard right, and the one to the north banks a hard left . . . so they took evasive action simultaneously.”
“I thought, ‘Holy s—, I couldn’t believe I saw it,” said the witness, who took a quick photo with his phone. “It was freaky.”
Nobody was injured.
Over the last several years the Sun-Times has detailed numerous other alarming incidents on runways and taxiways at O’Hare, including:
- In 2020, when an American Eagle jet preparing to land had to abort the landing when a city truck driver inadvertently drove his vehicle onto the landing strip.
- In 2018, when a cargo jet was told to sit tight and wait for instructions before taxiing across the busy airfield, but moved anyway and came dangerously close to a departing jetliner.
- In 1999, when an Air China plane accidentally lumbered into the path of a departing Korean Air jet with nearly 400 people on board. The Korean Air pilot lifted off early from the runway and banked to the left to avoid a collision. Had he waited even three more seconds, his plane “may not have attained sufficient altitude to clear,” records show.