WN1671 - Report: Southwest B737 at Long Beach on Oct 19th 2024

A Southwest Airlines Boeing 737-700, registration N250WN performing flight WN-1671 from Oakland,CA to Long Beach,CA (USA), was cleared to land on Long Beach's runway 30 although a private aircraft was still holding on the runway. The Boeing landed safely, slowed to taxi speed (17 knots over ground) about 857 feet ahead of the private aircraft and reported to ATC that there was another aircraft on the runway.

A private Diamond DA40 had landed on runway 30 with the instruction to hold short of runway 26R about 2 minutes earlier. The aircraft stopped on runway 30 short of runway 26R. About 3 minutes after WN-1671 was cleared to land about 15 seconds prior to WN-1671 reporting the other aircraft on the runway, the DA40 crew radioed ATC that they were still on the runway.

The NTSB released their preliminary report summarizing the sequence of events:

On October 19, 2024, at 1450 pacific daylight time (PDT), a Diamond DA40, N895AM, and a Boeing 737-7H4, N250WN, operated as SWA1671, were involved in a runway incursion in Long Beach, CA. There were no injuries reported and none of the aircraft were damaged. N895AM was operated as a Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Part 91 personal flight and had departed Camarillo Airport (CMA) with a destination of Long Beach Airport, Daugherty Field (LGB). SWA1671 was operated as a Title 14 CFR Part 121 passenger flight and had departed San Francisco Bay Oakland International Airport (OAK) with a destination of LGB.

A review of Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) air traffic control (ATC) audio recordings indicated that at 1442:36 PDT, the crew of N895AM established communication with the local control one (LC1) controller and reported inbound on the Area Navigation (RNAV) Runway 30 Zulu approach. The LC1 controller cleared N895AM to land on runway 30 and instructed the crew to hold short of runway 26 right for traffic. The crew of N895AM then requested to circle to land on runway 26 right which the LC1 controller verbally confirmed with the crew.

At 1444:38, the LC1 controller denied the circling request and again cleared N895AM to land on runway 30 and hold short of runway 26 right for traffic. The crew acknowledged with an accurate read back.

At 1446:46, the crew of SWA1671 established communication with the LC1 controller and reported inbound for landing on runway 30. At 1447:20 the LC1 controller cleared SWA1671 to land on runway 30 and provided a traffic advisory to the crew reference an uninvolved aircraft in the pattern. The crew acknowledged with an accurate readback.

At 1448:27, the LC1 controller provided a traffic advisory to the crew of SWA1671 reference a Cessna that was landing runway 26 left.

At 1449:50, the crew of N895AM advised the LC1 controller they were holding short of runway 26 right on runway 30.

At 1450:05, as SWA1671 was completing their landing roll out on runway 30, the crew of SWA1671 advised the LC1 controller that there was an aircraft on runway 30.

Following the runway incursion, both aircraft taxied to their requested parking areas without further incident.

Related Flight: WN1671, Southwest Airlines News