We’re not saying things are hunky-dory,” said John Heimlich, chief economist for the Air Transport Association, the trade group representing U.S. airlines. “All we’re saying is that some of the indicators we look at and some of the recent trends are promising, and that’s the first time I’ve used that word in a long time.”

With these words, we may see the airlines pull out of their free fall. The industry has been pummeled since September 11th, 2001 with fear of terrorism, high fuel prices, and unprecedented competition.

Responding by cutting back on flights, lowering labor costs, and raising prices, the major airlines are starting to get out from under the billions of losses that they have been facing. Adjusting to the new playing field that the low cost airlines such as Southwest, JetBlue, and Airtran have created has been hard for the majors, as seen by almost all of them entering into bankruptcy.

But hopefully, blue skys will be ahead for the airlines.  

The Southwest Airlines pilot who overshot the runway at Midway Airport told the federal investigators that he used the Boeing 737’s autobrakes. The only problem with this, Southwest’s policy and training tells the Southwest pilots not to activate these brakes.

The pilot’s use of the autobrakes against airline policy raises questions about Southwest’s braking procedures, especially for landing in inclement weathe

“It’s a really weird violation of Southwest policy. . . . Maybe he was a sharp pilot, and he decided to use the technology,” said Ron Stearney Jr., an attorney representing the Woods family.

“But did [the pilot] get the training to use that stuff when for all these years Southwest has prohibited pilots from doing so?

“Maybe he was not trained properly. I don’t know. But the weather at Midway [Thursday] was the ultimate test, and what we had was Titanic syndrome — relying on technology to buck Mother Nature. A plane landing in a snowstorm with seven inches on the ground.” via The Chicago Sun Times.

I hate to second guess a pilot, as there are many factors that he has to deal with in a short period of time, and with the runway in such bad shape, he may have saved many more lives by going outside of the training. It still needs to be reported that he did go outside of the training as this is developed and honed by Southwest and Boeing to be the most reliable way to land a plane.

The plane was finally removed from the intersection on Saturday, and the investigation is moving forward. The key points are that Southwest has said that the airplane had no maintainance issues, and the Midway Airport officials have stated that the airports runway was not impaired by the snow that had fallen.

Reports from the initial interview with the pilots say that a stuck Reverse Thruster Switch kept the pilots from stopping in time.

From the AP:

 damaged airliner was hauled off a city street on Saturday as federal aviation officials tried to determine why it slid off a Midway Airport runway and crashed into traffic, where it killed a 6-year-old boy. Representatives of the National Transportation Safety Board also arranged to interview the pilots of the Southwest Airlines Boeing 737.

“We’re just going to ask them if they know what happened from their point of view,” said Keith Holloway, an NTSB spokesman.

Southwest said the captain piloting Thursday’s flight has been with the airline for more than 10 years, and the first officer has flown with Southwest for 2 1/2 years. It was the first fatal crash in the airline’s 35-year history.

Workers used a crane with a sling to lift the airplane, which had been sitting in the middle of the street since Thursday, and move it onto airport property, Holloway said.

The street, just beyond the end of a runway, remained closed. (read the rest of the AP story)

More coverage:

• Chicago Tribune – Southwest CEO wins praise for crash response
• Chicago Tribune – Stuck Jet Switch Cited in Accident

The Washington Post has a sad but well written article on Southwest’s crash at Chicago’s Midway Airport Thursday night. The little boy killed was singing Christmas Carols just before the accident. Sad.

Runway conditions at Chicago’s Midway International Airport were reported to be “fair to poor” by a pilot who landed just minutes ahead of a Southwest Airlines jet that slid off the landing strip and slammed into vehicles on a road Thursday night, officials said yesterday.

The accident killed 6-year-old Joshua Woods of Indiana. He was riding in the back seat of his family’s Pontiac sedan, singing along with a Bruce Springsteen Christmas song, when the 737 crashed through a chain-link fence and hit the car.

The Woods family of five had just stopped at a McDonald’s and were driving near the northwest corner of Midway, according to lawyer Ronald A. Stearney Jr., who is representing the family. Joshua and his two siblings — ages 4 and 1 — were eating in the back seat when their father, who was driving, heard a jet engine’s roar, Stearney said.

Seconds later, the vehicle was pinned underneath the hulking fuselage as snow poured down. The father saw one of the 737’s jet turbines spinning and “thought it would suck him in,” Stearney said. The father climbed through a window of the crumpled sedan and pulled out his 4-year-old. He could not reach the infant or see Joshua.

Read the rest at the Washington Post.

Here are Some More Articles on the Crash and Southwests Reaction:

• Bloomberg:   Southwest Air Crash Inquiry Starts; Weather Is One Focus
• Chicago Tribune: Southwest Response Called Swift, Caring (Sub Req)
• Forbes: Southwest, No Maintainance Ills in Jet Crash
• NPR: Probe into Southwest Crash at Midway Underway (Audio Available
• CNN: Investigators begin Chicago Runway Probe

In a bizarre accident, a Southwest 737 slid off the runway at Chicago’s Midway Airport, slid through a fence and crashed into a car on 55th and Cicero Central.

• Midway’s Web Site 
• Map Of Runway (plane went off Runway 31C)
• Google Map of Airport(awesome shot)
• Flight Information for Midway (many diversions)
• Chicago Tribune has video

9:42 Update: CNN is broadcasting that the passengers suffered no injuries, and are being bussed to the terminal. The only person seriously hurt was a person in a car that was hit by the plane at  the intersection of Cicero and 55th. The Jaws of Life were used to get people out of the car.

10:01 Update 2: WGN is reporting that 2 Adults and 3 Children are injured. One Critically… Two cars were involved.

(11:07) Update 3: Rumor of a Fatality has been announced on CNN. One of the cars under the side of the plane. Other car under the nose of the plane. An 8 year old boy died in the incident. 11:36 Boy is now said to be 6 years old. God Rest his Soul.

MIDWAY CLOSED TILL TOMORROW AM

(6:45 AM) Update 4 This makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up

From the Chicago Tribune Article

Thursday’s incident came 33 years to the day after United Airlines Flight 533 crashed into a house near Midway, killing 45–43 people on the plane and two in the house it struck on 70th Place. Eighteen passengers survived.

That plane left Washington, D.C., for Omaha and was about to make a planned stop in Chicago when the pilot was instructed by the control tower to execute a “missed approach” pattern. As he went around for another landing attempt, the plane struck tree branches and then some bungalows before plowing into the home of Veronica Kuculich. She and her daughter, Theresa, died.

From the LA Times

The accident resulted in at least one vehicle being hit and the injury of at least two people, according to Larry Langford, a Chicago fire department spokesman.The plane, Flight 1248 from Baltimore, was landing about 7 p.m., according to fire and police reports.

There were more than 90 passengers aboard, Langford said. They were evacuated and being loaded onto buses, he said

CNN

There were no immediate reports of injuries, Abrams said, but Chicago Fire Department spokesman Larry Langford told The Associated Press that at least one person was seriously hurt in a vehicle.

The Boeing 737 was carrying 98 people. It left Baltimore-Washington International Airport about 5 p.m. ET and tried to land shortly after 8 p.m. ET. Passengers told WFLD television that the plane made a “hard landing.”

It had been snowing all day in Chicago and visibility was poor at the time of the landing. Midway airport lies in a dense residential and commercial district of the city, west of downtown.

Video from the scene showed at least 10 ambulances at the scene and dozens of fire trucks and other emergency vehicles converging on the intersection.

Southwest Press Release

DALLAS–(December 8, 2005 - 9:00PM) — Southwest Airlines has confirmed an interruption in its service with an undetermined origin. The event is significant enough, however, to put the airline into an “alert” status.

Southwest Airlines representatives with various areas of expertise have begun the investigation process into this event. THERE IS NO ADDITIONAL INFORMATION AT THIS TIME.

As the investigation continues, information will be posted via PR Newswire and on the Southwest Airlines website, located at www.southwest.com

Political Teen has video.

Map Of Midway:

And people are not happy about it. This loophole is starting to capture the attention of the flying public and more importantly. I use skype on a regular basis for talking to people throughout the world, and it is a wonderful tool. The clarity is better, and the cost is free if you are talking to another skype user, or very cheap if you are calling a telephone number.

However with this being said, I would go crazy if I was on an international flight and the person sitting next to me was talking on the phone the whole time.

But these days, there is a new wrinkle. Say you’re on El Al or maybe SAS or Lufthansa — one of the airlines that offers broadband Internet during flights for about $30 a trip. There are a lot of positives. You can do e-mail. You can get some Christmas shopping done. You can watch videos of curling.

But then the guy next to you boots up Skype. This is software that lets people make free or cheap phone calls over the Internet. Other software does this, too, including Yahoo Messenger.

Your seatmate connects to someone and starts talking. Maybe he has a headset — or maybe he doesn’t, and you have to hear both sides of the conversation as the other person crackles out of the laptop’s speakers.

There are no rules against this. It’s not a cellphone conversation. He is not using a BlackBerry or any unapproved electronic device. He’s on a laptop, on the plane’s Internet service, using software to make a phone call.

There’s not much you can do. You’re trying to read, but the guy is inches away from you in your coach seat. You feel the bile rising in your gullet. You read the same sentence six times, but all your brain takes in is the conversation next to you. And then the guy breaks out a webcam.

(more…)

Talk about a great gift for that someone you know who loves to travel. A great way to drop the subtle hint that you would like them to come and visit.

Southwest Gift Card Page.

Hat Tip Ben Mutzabaugh.

It looks like Southwest is going after US AIRWAYS by taking on more gates at Philadelphia International Airport.

Southwest operates from six gates at the Philadelphia airport now. By early January, the airline plans to take over leases on two gates used by UAL Corp.’s United Airlines, said Steve Sisneros, Southwest’s manager of properties. By spring, Southwest will get four gates now used by Delta Air Lines Inc.

Southwest’s expansion could further pressure US Airways to cut prices. In 2004, when Southwest invaded US Airways’ Philadelphia turf, average one-way fares here dropped 26%.

Southwest serves 61 cities nationwide, and it recently announced plans to start flying from Denver.

US Airways spokesman Philip Gee told The Philadelphia Inquirer for a story in Thursday editions that the airline wasn’t fazed by Southwest’s expansion plans. He said America West Airlines, which acquired US Airways out of bankruptcy court, has competed for years with Southwest in Las Vegas and Phoenix, where both airlines have hubs. US Airways and America West are merging their operations under the deal, which was completed in September. via USA Today

Atlanta Hartsfield Jackson Airport, the ATL, is the busiest passenger airport in the country. Serving Atlanta and Northern Georgia, Atlanta Hartsfield also serves as a hub airport, for transfers throughout the United States and the world.

Airlines that service Atlanta are Air Canada (AC) ,Air Jamaica (JM) ,AirTran (FL) ,American (AA) ,America West (HP) ,British Airways (BA) , Continental (CO), Corporate (3C),Frontier (F9) ,Independence Air (D9) ,KLM (KL) ,Korean Air (KE) ,Lufthansa (LH) Midwest (YX), Northwest (NW), United (UA), US Airways (US), Aeromexico (AM), Air France (AF), ASA (EV), Comair (OH), Delta Air Lines (DL), Hooters Air (H1), South African Airways (SA).

Click here for the official web site for Atlanta Hartsfield Jackson International Airport.

Map of Atlanta Hartsfield. Driving Directions.

Official TSA Security Wait times at Hartsfield (ATL) and Georgia Airports. 

Local  TSA Security Wait times at Hartsfield (ATL) tool.

 Please leave your comments about Atlanta Hartsfield Jackson International Airport (ATL). This will be an interactive resource to help others who plan to use the airport.