chapotraphouse

They aren't mutually exclusive at all. In fact they are additive, aviation is actually very safe if you don't maximize profit.

Another factor that adds to those two is that the airport is operating over-capacity. The incident flight was only on the path it was on because it had to be rerouted last minute due to some "bunching" with the other landing planes. Fewer flights = much lower risk of getting jammed up = no redirects.

Another additive factor is that because of the "redirect", the flight crew is no longer on their planned flight plan in, but they are actively flying the plane to divert to a different runway. In itself, there's nothing unsafe about it. They agreed to it with ATC (who may have said "can't safely divert and land? Ok you have to go-around."). At the same time, it's a situation where they are operating at a higher capacity than if they were on a more routine landing, which is that much lower of a chance that they will avert the collision.

Yeah ATC understaffing is definitely a problem but this was just a military helicopter pilot not doing what he was told