Series of Events
On 8th December 2005, at about 7:14 pm Central Standard Time, a South Western Airlines Boeing 737-7H4, N471WN, overran a runway at Midway Airport, Chicago, Illinois. According to the National Transport Safety Board (NTSB) report (2007), the aircraft had departed Thurgood Marshall Airport in Baltimore earlier that day. They were undertaking a landing procedure when the accident occurred.
The plane went through a blast fence surrounding an instrument landing system (ILS) antennae and the airport’s perimeter fence. It rolled onto a motor roadway and crashed into an automobile, occasioning the death of a minor inside the said vehicle. The airplane had 103 occupants, including two pilots, three cabin crew members, and 98 passengers. The accident resulted in the death of the minor above, one serious injury, and 21 minor injuries. The aircraft’s fuselage received substantial damage from the accident.
Technical Evaluation of the Landing
The prevailing conditions during the landing were a tailwind speed of 8 knots, 28 degrees Fahrenheit, and a visibility range of half a mile in freezing fog and moderate snow. The preferred runway 13C was barely visible at the prevailing meteorological conditions. The aircraft was forced to attempt landing on its reciprocal runway 31C, where it had to contend with a tailwind 3 knots above the recommended 5 knots (Badick & Johnson, 2021).
South Western Airport protocols require that pilots undertake a landing distance calculation before the approach after considering relevant factors. In this case, snow on runway 31C had to be cleared by the operator for landing to be feasible. The airport operator at Midway informed the accident pilots that braking action was good for the initial half and poor for the second half of runway 31C.
The NTSB report notes that there was relevant information from pilots describing runway 31C braking conditions as poor, which was not available to the accident pilots as required by Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) guidelines. The aircraft would have landed safely under the prevailing conditions if the accident pilots had been adequately briefed. With such information in mind, the pilots would have calculated an adequate braking distance and appropriately brought the aircraft to a halt.
References
Badick, J., & Johnson, B. (2021). Flight theory and aerodynamic: A practical guide for operational safety. John Wiley.
National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). (2007). Aircraft accident report runway overrun and collision Southwest Airlines Flight 1248 Boeing 737-7H4, N471WN Chicago Midway International Airport Chicago, Illinois December 8, 2005. Web.