Southwest Airlines Boeing 737-7H4 incident
Boeing 737-7H4 and ExpressJet Airlines Embraer EMB-145LR · Incident: runway incursion (vehicle, aircraft or person) while taxiing
Event
- NTSB case
- OPS09IA007
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Incident
- InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
- Completed
- API-reported fatalities
- 0 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- Airline
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Aircraft 1 · Boeing 737-7H4
- Aircraft type
- Boeing 737
- Category
- Airplane
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- N299WN
- Operator
- Southwest Airlines
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Cleveland Hopkins International Airport (CLE), Cleveland, OHTo Chicago Midway International Airport (MDW), Chicago, IL
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Part 121: Air Carrier
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- Taxi · to runway
- Defining eventThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- Runway incursion (vehicle, aircraft or person)
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- None
Aircraft 2 · Embraer EMB-145LR
- Aircraft type
- Embraer EMB-145
- Category
- Airplane
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- N16963
- Operator
- ExpressJet Airlines
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Cleveland Hopkins International Airport (CLE), Cleveland, OHTo Chicago O'Hare International Airport (ORD), Chicago, IL
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Part 135: Air Taxi & Commuter
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- Not recorded
- Defining eventThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- Not recorded
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- None
Cause areas
- Personnel issues › Action/decision
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
On Wednesday, June 3, 2009 at 3:15 p.m., a runway incursion occurred at CLE when SWA1080 was directed to taxi into position and hold on runway 6L prior to the departure of BTA2491 that had been previously cleared for takeoff from the same runway. BTA2491 queried the ATCT with “Hey tower, I thought we were cleared to go”. The ATCS immediately directed SWA1080 to hold short of runway 6R and corrected the location to runway 6L followed by directions to BTA2491 to hold present position. According to the airport movement and surveillance system (AMASS) playback, both aircraft had entered runway 6L, BTA2491 at the approach end and SWA1080 at the intersection of taxiway T and runway 6L. Taxiway T intersected runway 6L 1,475 feet from the approach end of runway 6L.
CLE was in a north flow configuration, departing runway 6L, arriving runway 6R.
Reported weather at CLE at 2:51 p.m. EDT/1851 UTC was: wind 350 degrees at 6 knots, visibility 6 statute miles in light rain showers. Few clouds at 1,200 feet, scattered clouds at 1,800 feet, overcast at 8500 feet. The temperature was 14 degrees Celsius, dew point 12 degrees Celsius. The altimeter was 30.11 inches of mercury.
Air traffic control tower (ATCT) staffing included 1 front line manager (FLM) on position with a developmental, local control (LC) 1 and 2 combined with a developmental, Ground Control (GC) 1 and 2 combined, and flight data (FD)/clearance delivery (CD) combined on position.
Probable cause
The ground controller did not issue taxi instructions in accordance with FAA Order 7110.65, paragraph 3-7-2. The local controller did not scan the runways prior to issuing a taxi into position and hold instruction to SWA1080 as required by FAA Order 7110.65 paragraph 3-1-12. The local controller did not cancel takeoff clearance for BTA2941 as required by FAA Order 7110.65, paragraph 3-9-10.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record OPS09IA007
- Event ID
- 20090612X13814
- Case number
- OPS09IA007
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
Source notes (6)
- Unreviewed is an editorial label, not an investigation status. API-sourced is not report-checked or human-reviewed. Explicit event totals are used without summing aircraft injury tables; onboard allocation is withheld. Unknown values remain unknown. The operation category is mapped from the NTSB-reported FAR part and has not been reviewed.
- Filled from the NTSB case API where the bulk record had no value: investigation status, damage. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date, which is the same as the UTC date the NTSB stores.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 4d11d5a3845ef6960fafdadc8638644451b36999601a8cab0fe252787513ecb8; retrieved 2026-09-13T18:15:27.860Z.
- The NTSB's operator name is blank for N299WN; the operator shown is the name the NTSB's other records give its FAA operator code, SWAA.
- The NTSB's operator name is blank for N16963; the operator shown is the name the NTSB's other records give its FAA operator code, C2XA.