Heavy rain and strong crosswinds may have contributed to Southwest 737's departure from Rwy in Chicago

(Photo by NBC Chicago)

Southwest Airlines 737-7Q8 (28209/14) N799SW slid off the runway at Chicago's Midway Airport (MDW/KMDW) during landing this afternoon.


Initial reports say that none of the 134 passengers or five crew were harmed; damage to the aircraft is unknown at this time but none was immediately evident in photographs of the scene.


Initial reports said Southwest flight 1919 from Denver International Airport (DEN/KDEN) approached and landed on Midway's runway 13C at approximately 1:33pm CDT during crosswind conditions and heavy rain.


Southwest Airlines says that passengers were deplaned and bussed to the terminal.


"The airline is making outreach to each customer onboard the flight to refund their roundtrip and issue them two complimentary roundtrip passes as a gesture of goodwill," the carrier says.


NTSB released a statement confirming the incident, and declared its intent to secure the cockpit voice and flight data recorders and interview the pilots.

(Air Transport Intelligence News)



***This aircraft was originally delivered to TEA - Trans European Airways Switzerland as HB-IIH. It was later operated by BWIA International as 9Y-TJI before coming to Southwest Airlines in early 2001.