*** PLEASE VISIT OUR NEW AND IMPROVED NEWS WEBSITE. CLICK HERE

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Southwest Plane Slides Off Runway in Chicago

CNN: A Southwest Airlines plane slid off a runway Tuesday during heavy rain at Chicago Midway International Airport, the airline said.

Southwest Flight 1919 had just landed en route from Denver when the Boeing 737-700 ran off the runway, the airline said in a statement posted on its Web site. There were no immediate reports of injuries, it said.

The report is the latest in a series of embarrassing incidents for Southwest Airlines, which came under scrutiny earlier this month when a ruptured fuselage ripped a hole in one of its B-737s at 34,000 feet and then again when reports surfaced that one of its planes came within 176 yards of a small aircraft.

The National Transportation Safety Board said in a statement it was investigating Tuesday's incident. There were 134 passengers and five crew members on board at the time of the incident, the NTSB said.

"The passengers have been safely deplaned from the aircraft using air stairs and have been bused to the terminal," the airline statement said.

No comments: