Flight from phoenix slides off runway full#

Flight from phoenix slides off runway full#

The pilot applied full power to go around for another landing attempt.Ī little more than a mile from the airport, the airliner struck tree branches, then hit the roofs of a number of neighborhood bungalows before plowing into a home, bursting into flames. In that crash, the pilot of United Airlines Flight 533 was instructed by the control tower to execute a 'missed approach' pattern. The accident occurred 33 years to the day after a crash at Midway that killed 45 people, two of them on the ground. Midway serves more than 17 million travelers a year, many of them on Southwest. The airport, Chicago's second largest, is closely bordered by streets lined with homes and businesses. Midway reported 7 inches of snow Thursday, but Abrams said runway conditions at the time were acceptable. 'When you're looking at a runway overrun, it almost always involves a runway condition that's improper,' Burnett told WFLD-TV. James Burnett, a former NTSB chairman, said investigators likely would examine such factors as weather, instrumentation, engines and runway operations, in particular whether snow removal was adequate. National Transportation Safety Board and FAA officials from Washington were en route to Chicago to investigate. 'There are no indications that there are any maintenance problems with that aircraft whatsoever,' Kelly said, adding that the plane had a service check in Phoenix on Wednesday. The plane circled Midway for about half an hour because of the weather and traffic before it was cleared for landing, Kelly said. Southwest flies an all-737 fleet with more than 400 aircraft. The passengers were held for questioning by investigators and first responders for about three hours, Vazzano said.Īt a news conference in Dallas, Southwest CEO Gary Kelly said the jetliner's captain had been flying for about a decade and the first officer had about 2½ years' experience. He said some passengers used inflatable slides to get out of the plane in the blowing snow, while others exited from stairs at the rear of the plane.

And I guess that's where we ran off the runway.'

I was sitting by the window, saw the snow on the runway, and became a little concerned. 'But after five or ten seconds, you realized you weren't slowing down. 'The wheels touched down and it seemed pretty much like a normal landing,' Vazzano told CBS News The Early Show co-anchor Hannah Storm. Passenger Larry Vazzano, 54, of the Baltimore area said the landing seemed normal at first. The airplane's nose was crushed and a severely damaged engine was on the ground, Chicago Fire Department spokesman Larry Langford said.