CHICAGO — A Southwest Airlines plane nearly collided with a small aircraft upon landing Tuesday morning at Chicago’s Midway Airport, the latest in a series of concerning incidents involving air travel in North America.

Video shows the Southwest plane's wheels about to touch down as the smaller jet entered the runway. The Southwest flight then aborted its landing and climbed back into the air as it performed a “go-around.”

The incident happened around 8:50 a.m. Flight 2504 from Omaha, Nebraska, landed safely about 20 minutes later.

The Federal Aviation Administration said the business jet entered the runway without authorization. The agency said it is investigating the incident.

Southwest Airlines confirmed its crew “performed a precautionary go-around to avoid a possible conflict with another aircraft that entered the runway.”

“The Crew followed safety procedures and the flight landed without incident,” a Southwest spokesperson said in a statement emailed to Spectrum News. “Nothing is more important to Southwest than the Safety of our Customers and Employees.”

Audio recording of communication between the crew and the tower includes the ground tower employee breaking off mid-message to the plane.

The pilot then said “Southwest 2504 going around” and followed directions to climb back to 3,000 feet.

Seconds later, the audio captures the pilot asking the tower: “Southwest 2504, how’d that happen?”

The close call comes at a time when flights in North America have suffered a series of high-profile crashes and collisions.

A commercial jetliner and an Army helicopter collided near Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 29, killing 67 people. A medical transportation plane crashed in Philadelphia on Jan. 31, killing the six people on board and another person on the ground. On Feb. 6, 10 people were killed in a plane crash in Alaska. And on Feb. 17, a Delta Air Lines jet crashed upon landing in Toronto and flipped over, although all 80 people aboard survived.

There were also two separate accidents involving small planes in Arizona this month. On Feb. 10, two private jets collided on the runway at a Scottsdale, Arizona, airport, killing one person. And on Wednesday, two small planes collided in midair over Marana Regional Airport outside Tucson, Arizona, killing two people.

It also comes as President Donald Trump has ordered large swaths of the federal government, including portions of the FAA, to downsize their staff and halt operations.

The Associated Press and Spectrum News' Joseph Konig contributed to this report.