San Diego Runway Incident Tied to Controller’s ‘Poor Judgment,’ Report Finds

NTSB also cites supervision lapses that led to loss of separation between Southwest 737 and Citation.

Ryan Ewing

Tuesday, September 30, 2025 at 03:00 PM ET

Verified

Edited By:

Travis Tingle

Aircraft in San Diego [Shutterstock]

Key Takeaways:

The NTSB concluded that the August 2023 San Diego runway incursion was primarily caused by the local air traffic controller's "poor judgment" and prioritization of unrelated tasks.
This led to a Southwest Airlines flight holding for departure and a Cessna Citation cleared to land losing required separation on the same runway.
A contributing factor was the operations supervisor being distracted by troubleshooting a jammed flight strip printer instead of supervising active air traffic operations.

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The National Transportation Safety Board has released its final report on a runway incursion incident at San Diego International Airport (KSAN) in August 2023, citing “poor judgment” and oversight lapses by air traffic control as the cause.

According to the report, Southwest Airlines Flight 2493, a Boeing 737-700, was holding in position for departure on Runway 27 when a Cessna Citation was cleared to land on the same runway. The airport’s ground radar system, Airport Surface Detection Equipment Model-X (ASDE-X), triggered both visual and aural alerts warning of the conflict.