From the sound of the report they were landing WITH the wind? Any idea why that might be?
Midway couldn't use
other runways because they
would have interferred
with patterns out of
O'Hare Airport. That is what
local papers say.
Read the entire article, and you'll know why.
Sounds like they were switched to 31C because the MDA was lower on that ILS approach. It is normally a combination of things that cause an accident rather than just one mistake. I think from memory that that runway is about 8000 feet, so it would be normal to touch down on a minimums ILS approach with a MDA of 200...250 feet AGL with about 5300 feet left. Actual touchdown only left 4500 feet. This was compounded with failure to activate reverse thrusters until 18 seconds into roll out and rapidly deteriorating conditions. It is also normal(though not always a good idea) to leave a little "insurance speed in the bank" under those conditions. Years ago I had a flight instructor that told me that the four things an aviator had no use for was "runway behind you; altitude above you; fuel left in the fuel truck and ideas you hadn't thought of yet". This could fall under one or more of those items.