The Southwest accident at Midway Airport was inevitable. As a pilot who has flown small airplanes into this airport, as a passenger on ATA and Southwest flights, and as an aircraft insurance adjuster for 19 years, I have long felt that it was only a matter of time before a commercial jet went off the end of a runway and through a barricade, and caused someone harm.
Midway Airport has been contained in its tiny space since its founding days of DC-3 flights. Nearly the whole surface is paved and even the longest runways are marginal for anything less than a perfect landing by the pilot.
Ask any 737 pilot about what the approach to landing at Midway looks like from his seat. Ask him if it is a “short field landing”–pilot-speak for runways that have little room for error in terms of length to get down and stopped. Midway is a tiny island of concrete surrounded by city. It looks more like landing on an aircraft carrier than a true modern international airport.
I have no knowledge of the politics that brought a huge new terminal to Midway at Chicago that supports essentially two airlines’ comings and goings.
It is a nice terminal, and other than some difficulty in getting there from outlying areas, it is a pleasant enough traveling experience.
But every time our flight returns, I think about my pilot stopping that big, heavy, fast airplane on that short runway.
This time it happened, all the little things conspired to create an accident. Night, snow, slick runway, landing downwind, the short runway, a tad too long and fast. Physics rule aviation; it had to happen. Glad I wasn’t along for that ride. But I’ve been on some of my own that were not too different, so I know the feeling of helplessness as the runway is running out and there is nothing you can do. I’ve been lucky and been able to get stopped. But that has not been true for many a pilot; it happens far more often than you would ever know.
Perhaps it is time for Midway’s use to be re-evaluated. Midway would best serve corporate and private flying activity, particularly since the destruction of Meigs Field. Heavy jet operations should be moved to the ever-expanding O’Hare International Airport, where the latest in aviation safety technology is already in place.
