Pilot error a factor in Midway Airport crash

After deciding it was safe to land in a snowstorm, the pilots of Southwest Airlines Flight 1248 overran the zone where the plane needed to touch down, losing hundreds of feet of runway that would have helped stop the jet before it skidded outside the airport and killed a 6-year-old boy, federal investigators recently concluded.

The Chicago Tribune said the plane glided over the runway, wasting stopping distance, before the captain planted the landing-gear wheels more than 2,000 feet beyond the edge of the 6,522-foot runway. The National Transportation Safety Board indicated the pilots needed at least 800 more feet of runway to avoid a collision.
The Southwest airline crash took place on Dec. 8. The pilots and a Southwest dispatcher were confident a landing could be accomplished, despite low visibility, a nettlesome tailwind chasing the plane and poor braking power on snowy Runway 31 Center.

The pilots’ decision to land was based on the dispatcher’s positive view of the situation, their experience, and flight data they entered into a cockpit computer. Weather updates indicated a freezing fog was setting in, but the computer confirmed the landing would be within the capability of the Boeing 737-700, but the 59-year-old captain missed the landing zone.

Preliminary calculations, using radar information and the flight data recorder onboard the plane, show the aircraft touched down with about 4,500 feet of runway remaining; approximately 5,300 feet of stopping distance was needed under the slick conditions to avoid a collision, the report said.

Less than a half hour before the flight landed, visibility was listed as only one-half mile-less than three quarters of a mile visibility according to the NTSA’s report. Making a landing with only a half-mile of visibility would violate FAA regulations. Approximately 23 minutes after the accident, “a special observation revealed” that visibility was only one-fourth mile, the safety board said.