NTSB Animation Runway Overrun of Southwest Airlines Flight 1248 at Chicago Midway

Courtesy NTSB

Aircraft Accident Report
Runway Overrun and Collision
Southwest Airlines Flight 1248
Boeing 737-7H4, N471WN
Chicago Midway International Airport
Chicago, Illinois
December 8, 2005
NTSB Number AAR-07/06
NTIS Number PB2007-910407

Executive Summary: On December 8, 2005, about 1914 central standard time, Southwest Airlines (SWA) flight 1248, a Boeing 737-7H4, N471WN, ran off the departure end of runway 31C after landing at Chicago Midway International Airport, Chicago, Illinois. The airplane rolled through a blast fence, an airport perimeter fence, and onto an adjacent roadway, where it struck an automobile before coming to a stop. A child in the automobile was killed, one automobile occupant received serious injuries, and three other automobile occupants received minor injuries. Eighteen of the 103 airplane occupants (98 passengers, 3 flight attendants, and 2 pilots) received minor injuries, and the airplane was substantially damaged. The airplane was being operated under the provisions of 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 121 and had departed from Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport, Baltimore, Maryland, about 1758 eastern standard time. Instrument meteorological conditions prevailed at the time of the accident flight, which operated on an instrument flight rules flight plan.

The National Transportation Safety Board determined that the probable cause of this accident was the pilots failure to use available reverse thrust in a timely manner to safely slow or stop the airplane after landing, which resulted in a runway overrun. This failure occurred because the pilots first experience and lack of familiarity with the airplanes autobrake system distracted them from thrust reverser usage during the challenging landing.

Contributing to the accident were Southwest Airlines 1) failure to provide its pilots with clear and consistent guidance and training regarding company policies and procedures related to arrival landing distance calculations; 2) programming and design of its on board performance computer, which did not present inherent assumptions in the program critical to pilot decision-making; 3) plan to implement new autobrake procedures without a familiarization period; and 4) failure to include a margin of safety in the arrival assessment to account for operational uncertainties. Also contributing to the accident was the pilots failure to divert to another airport given reports that included poor braking action and a tailwind component greater than 5 knots. Contributing to the severity of the accident was the absence of an engineering materials arresting system, which was needed because of the limited runway safety area beyond the departure end of runway 31C.

The safety issues discussed in this report include the flight crews decisions and actions, the clarity of assumptions used in on board performance computers, SWA policies, guidance, and training, arrival landing distance assessments and safety margins, runway surface condition assessments and braking action reports, airplane-based friction measurements, and runway safety areas.

Category:

Autos & Vehicles

Tags:

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• Animation
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• Overrun
• of
• Southwest
• Airlines
• Flight
• 1248
• at
• Chicago
• Midway
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• 787
• 777
• 737
• 757
• 767
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• a380
• a400
• airboyd
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• yt:quality=high

[DiamondPilotDan]

@flightsimmer948 wtf are you talking about? Like 2 giant levers isn't easy enough? If a button was better, there would be a button. 

Midway is damn hard to land at

[bicround2006]

I still wonder what Southwest paid the family of the boy there plane killed after it landed???

[FSXfan007]

1:10; the pilot would be a hero if he would have said: "yup, were cleared"

[FlightSimmer948]

I wish there was a button to deploy the reversers, then they could deploy much more conveniently.

[beergut111]

this airline should be renamed slidewest.......they suck and are very unsafe.

[chicago6584]

I remember when this happened. The jet went through a concrete wall surrounding the airport and went into the intersection of 55th and Central ave killing 6-year-old Joshua Woods

[trainfreak7745]

@sigmet25 ookk thank you fo clearing that up

[sigmet25]

@trainfreak7745 they would most likely shoot them down if they didnt, yes. This situation in the video about a south west jet being forced to land with a tail wind would not get the attention of the military though.

[trainfreak7745]

@sigmet25 oo so you mean they threatened to shoot them down if they did not land

[sigmet25]

@trainfreak7745 SCANTANA, you mean, not really, FAA cannot FORCE a plane to land they have to get the military involved to do that which is a separate authority.