Dangerously Close Call On Mexico City Runway With Delta & Aeromexico Jets

In aviation, we see a high number of close calls — for every disaster, there are a countless number of near misses. We’re also aware of these more than in the past, given the increasing popularity of flight tracking software, plus the public’s interest in aviation incidents.

Along those lines, a few days ago I covered how two aircraft had a terrifyingly close call in Mexico. I want to cover this once again, as we now have the partial air traffic control audio of the incident, and it gives us a (slightly) better sense of what happened…

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Aeromexico jet lands as Delta jet attempts to take off

This incident happened early on the morning of Monday, July 21, 2025, at Mexico City International Airport Benito Juarez (MEX), and involves two aircraft:

• A Delta Boeing 737-800 with the registration code N3766, operating flight DL590 to Atlanta (ATL)
• An Aeromexico Connect Embraer E190 with the registration code XA-ALP, operating flight AM1631 from Aguascalientes (AGU)

Air traffic controllers cleared the Aeromexico jet to land on runway 5R, while at the same time, clearing the Delta jet to line up on the runway and hold, and then to commence its takeoff roll. It’s normal for the same runway to be used for takeoffs and landings, but not at exactly the same time.

Runway 5R is really long — it’s 12,800 feet (3,900 meters), due largely to Mexico City’s high altitude. One important thing to understand is that there’s a displaced threshold on the runway, meaning that planes can only land around 1,700 feet (520 meters) beyond the point where they can take off. Thank goodness the runway has that, or else this ending could’ve been even scarier.

What happened here is that the Aeromexico aircraft overflew the Delta aircraft that was on the runway, and then still landed, even though there was another plane occupying the runway. Fortunately the Delta aircraft rejected its takeoff at around 60 knots, preventing a catastrophe. The Delta flight ended up returning to the gate, and then departing again around two hours later.

Below is an excellent VASAviation video about what happened, which provides a visualization of the movement of the planes, plus partial air traffic control audio. Note that we unfortunately only know what the pilots communicated, and not the instructions the air traffic controllers gave.

How could an incident like this happen?

While we see a lot of close calls, I’d say this is among the worst we’ve seen in quite some time. After all, on a runway, there’s only one direction to go (I mean, technically a runway has two directions, but planes can’t make an instant 180 degree turn while flying, so…).

It’s a bit different than when you have a plane crossing a runway without authorization, or a close call in the air, where it’s still unlikely that the planes would actually collide. On a runway, though, there’s a lot less ability to avoid disaster.

Obviously something like this raises several questions. For one, how could the air traffic controllers clear an aircraft to land and depart from the same runway at the same time? Was it a brain fart? Was there some other miscommunication?

For that matter, did the Aeromexico pilots not see the Delta jet lined up on the runway they were landing on? I suppose one theory there is that the displaced threshold might complicate that, especially when pilots might be focused on where they plan to land. Furthermore, this runway faces the east, and it was early in the morning, so it’s possible the pilots had the sun in their eyes, limiting visibility.

From listening to the air traffic control audio, a few things stand out:

• The Aeromexico pilot communicated with air traffic controllers in Spanish, which isn’t exactly ideal in terms of non-Spanish speaking pilots having a good frame of reference for what’s going on
• The Aeromexico pilot didn’t read back the runway assignment with multiple transmissions, which again, isn’t ideal in terms of avoiding dangerous situations
• It appears that the Delta pilots proactively aborted their takeoff, realizing what was going on; kudos to them for their swift action

Bottom line

A Delta Boeing 737 and Aeromexico Embraer E190 had a scary incident at Mexico City Airport, whereby one plane was cleared to land and the other plane was cleared to take off from the same runway at the same time.

This appears to be a major mistake by air traffic control, though one also wonders why the Aeromexico plane landed on the runway when it should’ve seen a Delta plane on the same runway. Was it because of the displaced threshold and sunrise, or something else? Thank goodness the Delta pilots aborted their takeoff roll in time.

What do you make of this Mexico City Airport close call?