Southwest Airlines flight skids off runway at Chicago's Midway

December 8, 2005 A Southwest Airlines Boeing 737-700 skidded off the runway at the Chicago Midway Airport on Thursday evening. The Southwest Airlines flight 1248 was en route to Midway from Baltimore-Washington International Airport. The aircraft attempted the landing at approximately 7:15 p.m. local time under heavy snow, and skidded off the runway, crashing through a steel barrier surrounding the airport and on to a residential street.

There were 98 passengers on the flight, two of them were reportedly injured and taken to a local hospital and the rest were bussed to the airport terminal.

Reports indicate that two vehicles were damaged. One of the vehicles was still lodged under the aircraft when police and fire officials arrived on the scene. Taken to the Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oaklawn were two adults and three children who were extracted from one of the vehicles the aircraft hit. One of the children, a 6-year-old boy from Indiana named Joshua Woods, has died from injuries suffered from the crash. The conditions of the other victims are still unknown.

The accident is under investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), and a final report is expected in about a year.