Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Jet slides off runway into street; two injured

By wire services
Published December 9, 2005

CHICAGO - A jetliner trying to land in heavy snow slid off a runway, crashed through a fence and slid into a busy street, hitting one vehicle and pinning another beneath it.

There were no reports of injuries on the plane, but two people on the ground were hospitalized, Aviation Department spokeswoman Wendy Abrams said.

The aircraft with 90 passengers was landing at Midway International Airport.

The nose of the plane, Southwest Airlines Flight 1248 from Baltimore, was crushed and a damaged engine was on the ground, Chicago Fire Department spokesman Larry Langford said.

"It got really bumpy, and then a big crashing sound," passenger Katie Duda told WMAQ-TV. The next thing she knew, the airplane had skidded past the airport and into the street, she said.

"Everyone was very calm. Everyone around me seemed very OK," she said.

The passengers used inflatable slides to get out of the plane in the blowing snow.

The Boeing 737 slid through the northwest corner of the airport, through the boundary fence and into the road, according to the Federal Aviation Administration's regional office in Chicago. Langford said at least two vehicles were damaged, and one was pinned under the plane.

The airport, Chicago's second largest after O'Hare International, is closely bordered by streets lined with homes and businesses. It serves more than 17-million travelers a year, many of them on Southwest.

A Southwest Airlines spokesman had no immediate information about the incident. Southwest flies an all-737 fleet with over 400 aircraft.

Snow caused troubles for travelers across the Midwest on Thursday, with as much as 10 inches on the ground in some areas and 7 inches at Midway.

[Last modified December 9, 2005, 01:20:12]