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

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Edited By:

Travis Tingle

Aircraft in San Diego [Shutterstock]

Key Takeaways:

The NTSB determined a runway incursion incident at San Diego International Airport was caused by air traffic control's "poor judgment" and oversight lapses.
The local controller prioritized unrelated tasks, diverting attention from monitoring aircraft and leading to a loss of required separation.
A contributing factor was the operations supervisor's focus on troubleshooting a jammed printer rather than actively supervising airport 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.