Accident Southwest Airlines Flight 1248

ils runway 31c chart chicago midway international airport, incident occurred.

on thursday, december 8, 2005, southwest airlines flight 1248 scheduled arrive @ chicago midway international airport baltimore-washington international thurgood marshall airport, , continue on salt lake city international airport, las vegas mccarran international airport. flight circled on small area in northwest indiana several times before attempting land in snowstorm. snowstorm had reduced visibility less 1 mile.

at around 7:15 p.m. cst, pilot attempted landing 8 inches of snow on ground in area. airport officials stated runway cleared of snow prior time of landing. latest reported weather had wind between east , east-southeast (100°) @ 11 knots (20 km/h).

an east south easterly wind favor landing wind on runway 13 center. runway visual range reported @ 4,500 feet, below landing minimums instrument landing system approach runway 13c. available runway lower minimums opposite direction on 31c, crew selected, aircraft s groundspeed consequentially boosted tailwind. alternately, crew have held in air, waiting weather improve, or have diverted airport, such chicago o hare international, substantially longer runways 10 minutes flying time away. each of these options have entailed considerable additional expense southwest, missed connections , significant inconvenience flight s passengers. national transportation safety board identified psychological pressure complete assigned task 1 of factors contributing crew s decision land @ midway despite unfavorable conditions. cockpit voice-recorder transcripts indicate pilots had been concerned weather and, prior landing, jokingly alluded movie airplane!, saying, picked bad day stop sniffin glue.

the ntsb preliminary report has determined aircraft touched down in touchdown zone of runway 4,500 feet of 6,522-foot (1,988 m) length remaining; under prevailing conditions of weather, wind, speed, , weight, aircraft needed 5,300 feet of runway stop safely.

a preliminary ntsb advisory says: flying pilot (captain) stated not reverse thrust levers out of stowed position. first officer, after several seconds, noticed thrust reversers not deployed, , activated reversers without problem. flight data recorder information reveals thrust reversers not deployed until 18 seconds after touchdown, @ point there 1,000 feet of usable runway remaining.

the 737 skidded during landing; subsequently, witnesses said nosegear collapsed, aircraft crashed barrier wall surrounding airport, , came rest on central avenue south of 55th street intersection @ northwestern corner of airport. intersection full of traffic, , airplane hit @ least 3 cars, killing six-year-old boy named joshua woods, critically injuring 5 occupants of 1 car (two adults , 3 children), , injuring 4 occupants of second car. taken area hospitals. 3 passengers aircraft taken hospitals minor injuries. twelve people taken hospitals after incident. of cars hit parked , unoccupied.