Wow!! look at all those aircraft in holding patterns on approach to O’hare!
This is my theory on the crash of SWA1248:
I believe that the plane hit a patch of black ice ( the invisible kind), or, with the high moisture and low tempature, it may have interfered with the fuel/air mixture, and/or caused previosly undetected icing. But im more certain that the aircraft had skidded, while the pilots desparatly tried to stop the aircraft. Didnt something similiar happen at KDCA some years ago with a US Air 737-200?
I hope that anyone who uses or visits this site who has friends or family currently traveling to Chicago that they will get home safley. Also, my deep condolences to the family of the boy who was killed and all of the other victims.
I remember when i was going back to KMDT from KORD in Feb on the second leg of my trip back to KMDT from a trip to Dallas that I almost had to stay at O’hare for the night, while our luggage went home on the flight we were booked on. The plane to KORD from KDFW that we were supposed to be on was over booked because of inclement weather at KORD, so we did not depart on it, but our luggage did. My father and I then had to take a later flight at 5:30, but by the time we got to KORD, the American Eagle flight we were to take home on had just departed, and with our luggage!! So my father and I desparatly ran from Concourse L to Concourse H to try and catch the flight.
So we were running, and running, and im running so fast, i have no idea where i am, and i realize i just lost my father, who has arthritis and cant run well. I then here a voice and behold! He’s at the kiosk at the gate asking for an alternate flight. He gets rebooked on an United Airlines Express flight to KMDT. But thats in Terminal 1, the United terminal at concourse B. So now were running and running and running and I almost knock over some people. We get to the gate, though my father forgot his coat at Concourse H and its sleeting at KMDT. The aircraft was already boarding, so we managed to get a seat after checking in. It was a UEX 737-500, and it had a channel on the radio things in the armrest that allowed you to listen to ATC. We were cleared to taxi to runway 27L, and we soon took off.
It was a very depressing flight, for we did not know if we would ever see our luggage again. I litened to the ATC the whole trip until they cleared us to land runway 13 at KMDT. IT was completely white out as we passed through the clouds, and the approach was rather turbulent. I anxiously waited to see the runway lights, as we seemed to be still in the clouds even as we decended even further. Finally, I saw the runway lights, and the plane landed. The control tower then asked the pilot to say how the braking was on the runway. They said it was good. We taxied to the gate, at the new terminal and left the plane to a completly empty airport, with mysterious country music playing at 2:00 AM in the dark terminal. The next day we returned to find our luggage and they were there, with tagging for the American Eagle flight we missed. The END.
[/list]
