OMAHA, Neb. (KMTV) — The flight took off from Eppley around 7:30 Tuesday morning and eventually landed in Chicago safely shortly after 9.
Reporter Molly Hudson spent the afternoon at Eppley talking with travelers about this incident and what it’s been like to fly recently.
- The video shows the flight briefly touching down before the nose pulls up as a smaller aircraft rolls across the runway in the 737's path.
- According to reports by the Associated Press, the FAA is investigating.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
"I been on some scary flights, like that, but nothing that was really like human error,” said Alexander Olsen, a traveler from Omaha.
Air travel is often filled with ups and downs but normally not like this.
“How did they see that and move so fast,” said Patricia Herring, a traveler flying out of Eppley Tuesday afternoon. "I'd be so confused what was happening, I am already pretty nervous to fly right now.”
Thankfully the flight did land safely, the video showing the flight briefly touching down before the nose pulls up as a smaller aircraft rolls across the runway in the 737's path.
“My initial reaction was it was a pretty scary sight, but that the pilots from the Southwest flight certainly did what they were trained to do,” said Scott Vlasek, director of the UNO Aviation Institute.
Vlasek says a go-around, seen in the video, can be triggered by several things.
“A wind gust or something like that is maybe a more common thing but in the case of something on the runway, whether it is an animal or a person, or in this case another airplane can also trigger one of those,” Vlasek said.
According to reports from the Associated Press, the Federal Aviation Administration says the second plane, a business jet, was on the runway without authorization.
Travelers I talked to try not to think about the incidents we have seen recently.
"I just say one prayer right when we are taking off,” Herring said.
Trusting those in charge, to get them where they need to go safely.
“Once you've got your ticket, once you are on the plane, it's kind of out of your control, and you just have to make peace with that I guess,” Olsen said,
"Their situational awareness was in place that they were able to do that and potentially save a number of lives today,” Vlasek said.
I spoke with Emily Novak, an Omaha woman who was on the flight.
“The pilot had warned us that we were about to land, and we were all ready for it and then all of a sudden we just kind of took back off, like right before we hit pavement, and we were like okay this is kind of weird but honestly it was so calm. So we went back up in the air, the pilot a few minutes later was like hey there was a plane on our tarmac, we just have to circle around, it’s going to be about 10 more minutes, we will get you on the ground soon and you should make your connecting flight no problem, kept it very very calm, no one knew what happened,” Novak said.
Emily said she didn’t see what happened until she made it to Dallas and is grateful for the way the pilot handled to the situation to keep all passengers safe.
According to reports by the Associated Press, the FAA is investigating what happened Tuesday morning.