Author Topic: Southwest 737 slides off runway at Midway (Read 1588 times)

Fishu · « **Reply #30 on:** December 11, 2005, 12:49:54 AM »

Quote

Originally posted by RAIDER14
Southwest should not be held responsible for the incident becuase it was a weather related incident.O'hare was closed at the time so why wasn't midway.

It is up to the pilot to make the call whether to land or not and usually airlines do have some guidelines to it.
If captain makes a mistake on a flight, it's up to the airline to compensate for damages.

I suspect that this was a human error, where the captain made the wrong decision to land in crappy weather and blew the attempt.
Theres a chance the captain stretched the rules too - landing in a weather in which he shouldn't have by the book, but thought he'd make it.
6500ft is quite short for 737-700, even more so with bad traction.

Golfer · « **Reply #31 on:** December 11, 2005, 12:54:30 AM »

It's worth noting that 2 other Southwest flights landed within the 13 minutes prior to this one having an unsuccessful attempt.

They also found the runway in the watermelon Wx. I'm curious to see what the NTSB finds happened but I wouldn't rule out a mechanical error or malfunction of some kind.

Chairboy · « **Reply #32 on:** December 11, 2005, 01:38:57 AM »

Of interest, the runway has a displaced threshold, and considering that the ILS brings the plane down halfway along the runway, no huge surprise that something like this could happen in ice. Must have been coming in at the minimums, like, for sure. What's a zero vis landing called again, an alpha approach?

Debonair · « **Reply #33 on:** December 11, 2005, 01:40:37 AM »

Any word on why the SW 737 was cleared to land with a tailwind?

Wolfala · « **Reply #34 on:** December 11, 2005, 01:48:22 AM »

Ok,

Just a show of hands - who, besides myself and like 3 people on this board have flown into MDW as PIC on a weekly basis in all seasons?

Lets see how the investigation goes.

Wolf

Golfer · « **Reply #35 on:** December 11, 2005, 03:06:22 AM »

Not in Wx like that. I'd do it if I could land a Meigs, though.

Debonair · « **Reply #36 on:** December 11, 2005, 03:13:38 AM »

Quote

Originally posted by Wolfala
Ok,

Just a show of hands - who, besides myself and like 3 people on this board have flown into MDW as PIC on a weekly basis in all seasons?

Lets see how the investigation goes.

Wolf

Nah, we'll have lost interest by then.
Lets armchair quarterback it now!

rpm · « **Reply #37 on:** December 11, 2005, 09:47:35 AM »

This could not have happened at a worse time for Southwest. They are in a huge battle to have the Wright Amendment repealed allowing nationwide flights from Love Field. Love is an innercity location very similar to Midway.

Dago · « **Reply #38 on:** December 11, 2005, 10:08:37 AM »

Quote

Originally posted by RAIDER14
Southwest should not be held responsible for the incident becuase it was a weather related incident.O'hare was closed at the time so why wasn't midway.

What? It wasnt a Southwest decision to land on a short runway in bad weather?

They only close an airport so they can plow the runway, once it is plowed, it is reopened.

Dago · « **Reply #39 on:** December 11, 2005, 10:10:40 AM »

Quote

Originally posted by Debonair
Any word on why the SW 737 was cleared to land with a tailwind?

They can give a pilot any type of landing clearance, it's his decision to accept it and he knew the winds.

MotleyCH · « **Reply #40 on:** December 11, 2005, 10:56:03 AM »

This accident could have been alot worse. The fence is not a chain link fence as most people would think. It's up-rights are like steel I-Beams and the material in between are sheets of metal about 10+ feet high. They were lucky that the fence didn't rupture the fuel tanks and ignite.

Midway is probably the busiest airport for it's size, 1 square mile! There's no room for expansion tho, unless you move or remove some major streets and railways.

Fishu · « **Reply #41 on:** December 11, 2005, 11:09:50 AM »

Quote

Originally posted by MotleyCH
This accident could have been alot worse. The fence is not a chain link fence as most people would think. It's up-rights are like steel I-Beams and the material in between are sheets of metal about 10+ feet high. They were lucky that the fence didn't rupture the fuel tanks and ignite.

That doesn't really make much of a difference for the bigger aircraft
The wing structure can easily bend those over - if it couldn't take such force, it would've already broke up in the air due to air resistance and flexing.

Golfer · « **Reply #42 on:** December 11, 2005, 11:26:27 AM »

Quote

Originally posted by Debonair
Any word on why the SW 737 was cleared to land with a tailwind?

Overlooked this post first time through...

My home airport has Rwy 4/22 with an ILS only to 4. There's been more than a few days that Wx is below circling minimums and your only choice is to land downwind if you want to land there at all.

It's surprising how much runway a Mooney uses when you've got a 15kt tailwind

First time I saw a downwind landing was a Burke Lakefront in Cleveland. I'd just flown in that night and circled to land on 6R after an ILS approach to 24R with about a mile visibility in mist.

In behind me came a G-V (with I'm sure it's fancy schmansy HUD and EVS) and they landed downwind and used about half the runway anyway. Wind's wern't that strong just a little more than 5kts but it was pretty nifty to see the landing lights emerge from the murk and then land.

C-130s at Mansfield provide my favorite light display for low night IFR approaches.

RAIDER14 · « **Reply #43 on:** December 11, 2005, 12:44:10 PM »

Did the tower inform the SWA pilots of the harsh runway conditions or the heavy winds?

Fishu · « **Reply #44 on:** December 11, 2005, 01:16:54 PM »

Quote

Originally posted by RAIDER14
Did the tower inform the SWA pilots of the harsh runway conditions or the heavy winds?

It's a wonder if a 737-700 pilot doesn't have any idea of the runway condition through ACARS.
Better yet... ATIS.

I'm quite sure they've had a pretty clear idea of the conditions, but captain was probably in a hurry or otherwise overly confident.
Would be interesting to know if the touchdown was late - like with the overrun & burned airbus.