Posted on 12/08/2005 7:08:09 PM PST by xjcsa
Edited on 12/08/2005 7:14:40 PM PST by Admin Moderator. [history]
CHICAGO (Reuters) - A Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 with 98 people on board slid off a runway at Chicago's Midway Airport after landing in a snowstorm on Thursday, crashed through a fence and ended up across a road, CNN reported.
There were no immediate reports of injuries on the plane, which had flown from Baltimore. One person was initially reported as injured in a car that collided with the plane. The plane's nose was resting on the ground.
Ambulances and fire trucks rushed to the scene, in the northwest corner of the airport, which is surrounded by roads and a residential area.
Television footage showed the plane intact.
The Federal Aviation Administration said on its Web site that Midway Airport closed at 8:16 p.m. CST (0216 GMT) because of the accident. It said the airport was expected to reopen on Friday at 6 a.m. CST (1200 GMT).
Is this Southwest's first ever 'accident'? I believe there record has been clean up to this point.
No, they did this in California a couple years ago...ended up with a 737 at a gas station outside the airport (Long Beach?). They've had accidents, just no fatals to date.
It's really no suprise given the weather tonight.
Don't know what they got at Midway, have heard 7" in areas near there so. The snow is the most feathery light snow I have ever seen, lighter than powder and as slippery as heck, as soon as you shovel it and walk on just a very thin new layer - it's like glass.
dec 8.... its global warming
The news says we're getting about two inches per hour here in Southern Mi.
This makes no sense. Both Chicago airports are easy landings. Wide, good weather radar and very informed. Sounds like plane problems to me.
No, I haven't had the radio on since dinner but there were long delays, an hour or more at airports, the roads were a mess, 45 min drives where all 2 and 3 hours, lots of fender benders etc. It was slippery stuff and visibility was not good. Midway's runways are surrounded by roads, right up next to the runways. I don't think it was anything but weather related.
I've never considered any landing in Midway to be "easy". Because the runways are so short, they always have to slow the plane down VERY quickly. Nearly slams you into the seat in front of you every time!
Yes, it is probably just runway problems. Very slippery. While this is a small moving storm, it is a dangerous one.
Take care.
Midway Runways
Direction Length Surface
ft m
13C/31C 6,522 1,988 Concrete
04R/22L 6,446 1,965 Asphalt/Concrete
04L/22R 5,507 1,679 Asphalt
13L/31R 5,141 1,567 Asphalt
13R/31L 3,859 1,176 Concrete
O'Hare Runways
Direction Length Surface
ft m
14R/32L 13,001 3,963 Paved
14L/32R 10,301 3,140 Paved
09R/27L 10,144 3,092 Paved
04R/22L 8.071 2,460 Paved
09L/27R 7,969 2,429 Paved
04L/22R 7,500 2,286 Paved
Short stuff
Midway Runways
Direction Length Surface
ft m
13C/31C 6,522 1,988 Concrete
04R/22L 6,446 1,965 Asphalt/Concrete
04L/22R 5,507 1,679 Asphalt
13L/31R 5,141 1,567 Asphalt
13R/31L 3,859 1,176 Concrete
O'Hare Runways
Direction Length Surface
ft m
14R/32L 13,001 3,963 Paved
14L/32R 10,301 3,140 Paved
09R/27L 10,144 3,092 Paved
04R/22L 8.071 2,460 Paved
09L/27R 7,969 2,429 Paved
04L/22R 7,500 2,286 Paved
Short stuff
It took my son 4 hours to drive home from the O'Hare area. He said the highways were all ice, lots of accidents. Said traffic was going about 15 miles an hour.
Now the wind has picked up here & it's drifting the snow, I can see it blowing off of our rooftops.
"They've had accidents, just no fatals to date."
Though news outlets are now reporting a six year old child was killed. Unfortunately, it is always a matter of time and numbers. The string has, apparently, run out.
Drudge is reporting a boy has died.
NTSB: Reverse Thrusters Did Not Work Properly
Investigation Continues
CBS2 Chicago
(AP) CHICAGO The reverse thrusters that should have slowed a Southwest Airlines jetliner before it slid off a runway at Midway Airport and into the street didn't immediately kick in when the pilots tried to deploy them, federal investigators said Saturday after interviewing the crew.
How much of a role that braking equipment played in Thursday's deadly accident wasn't immediately clear, though, and the investigation is continuing.
The plane's flight attendants told investigators that the Boeing 737 didn't appear to slow after it touched down at Midway in a snowstorm Thursday, said Robert Benzon, the National Transportation Safety Board's investigator in charge.
"They all said it was a smooth landing but they could sense a lack of deceleration," Benzon said.
He said the pilots told investigators they began applying the brakes manually as soon as they noticed that the plane wasn't slowing properly. The plane, with 98 passengers aboard, slid through a fence and into street traffic, where it killed a six-year-old boy in a car.
Because of the blowing snow, none of the air traffic controllers actually saw the plane land, but more than 10 cameras have been identified that could provide additional information, including details about the runway conditions, Benzon said.
On Saturday, workers used a crane with a sling to lift the damaged airliner off the city street and into a hangar for further inspections.
Southwest said the captain piloting Thursday's flight has been with the airline for more than 10 years, and the first officer has flown with Southwest for 2 1/2 years. It was the first fatal crash in the airline's 35-year history.
The plane had been landing in a snowstorm when it slid off the end of the 6,500-foot runway, plowed through a fence and struck two cars. Ten people, most of them on the ground, were injured and the boy was killed in a car driven by his father.
The plane's voice and data recorders were sent to Washington for analysis, NTSB member Ellen Engleman Conners said.
Though the airport had about 7 inches of snow at the time, aviation officials said conditions were acceptable. Southwest chief executive Gary Kelly said on Friday that the plane had recently had a maintenance check and showed no signs of problems.
Midway -- built in 1923 and surrounded by houses and businesses -- is among nearly 300 U.S. commercial airports without 1,000-foot buffer zones at the ends of runways.
Safety experts suggest the airports guard against accidents by using beds of crushable concrete that can slow an aircraft if it slides off the runway's end.
The crushable concrete beds -- called Engineered Material Arresting Systems -- are installed at 18 runways at 14 airports. They have stopped dangerous overruns three times since May 1999 at Kennedy Airport in New York.
Chicago Department of Aviation spokeswoman Wendy Abrams could not immediately say whether an arresting system had been considered at Midway.
Some pilots say relatively short runways like Midway's pose a challenge in icy or snowy weather, forcing them to touch down as close as possible to the beginning of the runway to allow more braking time.
"It's not a place you can be a little off," said Richard Ward, a retired United Airlines pilot who occasionally flew into Midway. "You don't have the variable of a long runway to correct any errors."
"It's really no suprise given the weather tonight."
...
The usual problem with that airport is constant wind sheer coupled with short runways. White knuckle take offs.
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