THE EVENT SUMMARY
The Southwest Airlines flight 1248 from Thurgood Marshall Airport, Baltimore to Chicago’s Midway International Airport was a scheduled passenger flight. On the day of 8th Dec, 2005, Boeing 737-700 carrying 98 passengers and 5 crew members on board overran while landing on a heavy snowstorm day in Chicago. The aircraft skidded off the runway and crashed into a car on the nearby street killing a 5 year old boy and injuring 4 people on ground and 18 passengers onboard.
WEATHER CONDITIONS
The snowstorm attacked northeast Illinois
covering upto 25.4 cms in the parts of the
Chicago metropolitan area. It was observed
that visibility at the airport was occasionally
reduced to 0.2 km in part due to large snow
flakes. Pilots were advised to enter into holding
pattern while runway clearing snowplow
operations were in progress. METAR reported
winds at 110 degrees at 11knots, visibility
½ statute mile, cloud ceiling 400 feet and
runway 31C RVR 4500 feet (Wilson, n.d.).
The design of the aircraft permits safe landing in maximum of 10knots of tailwind component. This was further restricted by Southwest’s company policies and flight operations manual which allow Pilots with no more than 5 knots of tailwind to land with. From the data it can be noted at the time of accident, tail winds were ranging between 8knots.
OBSERVATIONS
The plane touched down 2000 feet into the runway and it was believed that Pilot did not deploy the thrust reversers till 18 seconds after touchdown which was way too late and by that time, the aircraft was only 1000 feet away from the end of the runway and it was likely to smash into the fence. Reports from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) showed the Southwest Airlines jet had...
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...as Engineered material arresting system (EMAS). This system requires a lot less space and gives the same level of benefit which RESA provides. There are many cases where EMAS has decelerated the aircraft and helped the aircraft avoid the potential crash. To get further understanding of the use of EMAS, a list of few more incidents where EMAS safely stopped the overrunning aircrafts is mentioned below:
> July 2006, A Mystere Falcon 900 overran the runway at Greenville Downtown Airport in South Carolina
> July 2008, An Airbus A320 overran the runway at ORD
> January 2010, A Bombardier CRJ-200 regional jet overran the runway at Yeager Airport in Charleston, WVA
> October 2013, A Cessna 680 Citation overran the runway at Palm Beach International in West Palm Beach, FL
-EMAS is being built at Trenton-Mercer Airport- September 2012- Photo credits- the times of Trenton
The difference between the airport when it was first built is not drastic, but many things have upgraded. Fly.mcw.com said when the
...e ultimately saved that flight. Before getting back into the plane, he could have taken a moment to walk around and look at how the snow was affecting the wings. He would have seen that snow was collecting on the surface and could have made a decision to have the plane de-iced and had a coat of anti-ice on. They could have been more patient with the plow truck. Gave the plow truck more time to clear the runway then get off. Then he would have never had to turn off the engine bleeds to obtain a shorter take off distance. The pilot could have made a decision to hold off on the departure till the weather got better. With the ceiling at 900 feet and visibility at 1 ¼ doesn’t offer much room for error. I feel as if the pilots had made a decision to change at least one of these things, the plane would have never crashed. It is a good learning experience for other pilots.
what it looked like after the tornado struck up the street). More than 25 auto
On the morning of September 11/2001, 19 terrorist working for the Al Qaeda terrorist organization hijacked four commercial planes. They attempted to fly them into multiple U.S targets. One of the planes, American Airlines, flight 11, crashed into the north tower of the World Trade Center at 8:50 a.m. Another plane, United Airlines, flight 175, crashed into the south tower at 9:04 a.m. These tragedies took the lives of nearly 3000 people and affected the lives of millions.
Debunking the 9/11 Myths: Special Report - The Planes - Popularmechanics.com. (n.d.). Automotive Care, Home Improvement, Tools, DIY Tips - Popularmechanics.com. Retrieved April 26, 2010, from http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/military/news/debunking-911-myths-planes
Another theory is that the pilot, Jason Dahl might have purposefully crashed the plane to prevent the hijackers from taking it over. Or perhaps that Dahl had cut off the planes fuel with out the hijackers being aware. It was said that the plane looked like it went straight down; and that the plane had almost completely disintegrated on impact leaving a hole several feet deep.
September 11, a turning point in the United States history. This event caused various negative impacts on the aviation industry. It changed the way airports and airlines organized themselves completely. The effect was so strong that it caused bankruptcies, people to lose their jobs, changes in how flights were made and flew, and security checking’s. This day also created fear and psychological issues on individuals concerning anything to do with flying on an airplane. In other words, this day was a catastrophe in the aviation industry in the US.
Macdonald, L., Parkes, W., Starkey, S., Rapke, J. & Zemeckis, R. (2012). Flight. United States:
More than 37 years ago, Rollin King and Herb Kelleher got together and decided to start a different kind of airline. They began with one simple notion: If you get your passengers to their destinations when they want to get there, on time, at the lowest possible fares, and make darn sure they have a good time doing it, people will fly your airline. And you know what? They were right. What began as a small Texas airline has grown to become one of the largest airlines in America. Today, Southwest Airlines flies over 104 million passengers a year to 64 great cities all across the country, and we do it more than 3,400 times a day.
Due to the new noise law, Runway 14 is down after 10pm in order to keep out of German Airspace and the aircraft was diverted to Runway 28. Runway 28 has less precise technology as compared to Runway 14. Runway 28 uses a less accurate navigational system which is VHF Omnidirectional Range / Distance Measuring Equipment (VOR/DME) as VOR/DME does not provide guidance on the plane’s altitude and the approach to Runway 28 was not equipped with Minimum Safe Altitude Warning (MSAW) thus the pilots are not warned about the greater risk of crashing into a terrain.
The above mentioned airplane was a planned commercial passenger flight that took off from LaGuardia Airport, New York destined for Charlotte Douglas Airport in North Carolina on January 15, 2009. Six minutes after takeoff, the airplane was successfully abandoned in Hudson River after striking multiple birds during its initial climb out. The crew reported by radio two minutes after takeoff at an altitude of 3,200 feet, the Airbus experienced multiple bird strikes. The result of this multiple bird strikes, which occurred in northeast of George Washington Bridge was compressor stalls as well as loss of thrust in both engines. The Airbus was ditched in Hudson River after the aircrew discovered that they would not reach any airfield and turned southward. Fortunately, all the 155 passengers on board survived the accident though the Airbus was partly submerged and sinking slowly.
On February 24, 1989, United Airlines flight 811 was en route to Sydney, Australia from Honolulu, Hawaii. They later experienced decompression due to the cargo door failure in front aft during flight. Flight 811 made successful emergency landing at Honolulu with nine passengers missing out of 337 passenger aboard. The cargo door that was ejected on Flight 811 damaged engines 3 and 4, which led to crew to turn back to Honolulu.
There are few things that are impressive about Southwest Airlines first one is how they treat the employees. For Southwest Airlines employees are first and customers are second. If the employees are treated well that will bring in happy customers. Next is that Southwest is not only with their low prices but is able to create a competitive advantage by offering a fun and humorous experience when flying. Finally another impressive fact is when Herb Kelleher’s retire from CEO position yet remained a Southwest employee till July 2014. Even after the retirement he was still active with the Southwest Airlines that reflected his enthusiasm and dedication for the
"Press release, 16 January 2002 Issue of the final report into the Concorde accident on 25 July 2000." http://www.bea.aero/. BEA, 16 Jan. 2002. Web. 16 Nov. 2013. .
Japan’s worst amusement park disaster was the Fujin Raijin II roller coaster. Cars were derailed and went flying off the tracks. A nineteen year old student was killed and nineteen others were injured. A broken axle caused the derailment. None of the rides axles had been replaced for fifteen years. The Haunted Castle at Six Flags Great America burst into flames. The wind whipped flames to over 2,000 degrees turning the interior into a raging inferno. Most of the people inside the castle escaped safely, but eight teenagers became trapped and died in the blaze. This accident holds the record for the worst number of deaths ever recorded for a roller coaster