But Did That Make A Difference?
The Southwest captain whose Boeing 737 overran a snowy runway
when landing at Chicago's Midway Airport last week said he had set
the plane's autobraking system prior to touching down, according to
NTSB investigators -- something that Southwest discourages pilots
from doing.
The news would also appear to
contradict an earlier statement, as was reported in Aero-News, by
Southwest CEO Gary Kelly -- who stated the flight crew
had opted to disconnect the autobrakes in order to give them a
greater degree of control over the situation.
Investigators confirmed the switch for the autobrakes -- which
deploy the brakes when the aircraft's landing gear settles onto the
runway -- was set to "maximum" after the accident, according to the
Chicago Sun-Times. Southwest Flight 1248 landed on Midway's
31-Center Thursday night, during a snowstorm and with a seven-knot
quartering tailwind, according to the FAA Preliminary Report on the
accident.
Use of the autobrakes
goes against a Southwest Airlines policy intended to reduce the
turnaround times for its jets, according to the Sun-Times, as the
system heats the brakes to the point they require a longer
cooling-off period before the plane is allowed to takeoff again.
Southwest often aims for as little as a ten-minute turnaround time
at the gate, which wouldn't give fully heated brakes enough time to
cool off.
In addition to the ban on use of autobraking systems --
confirmed by Southwest spokewoman Linda Rutherford to the Sun-Times
-- a former Southwest pilot told the paper pilots are told to slow
their aircraft after landing to 80 knots by using the thrust
reversers before touching the brakes -- all in the name of reducing
time at the gate.
"Safety does not come into question," said Bert Yetman, now with
the Professional Pilots Federation. "It's how long the runway is
and how quick you want to turn around."
As with all previous reports, the newest revelation into the
accident seems to ask more questions than it answers.
"It's a really weird violation of Southwest policy..." said
attorney Ron Stearney Jr. on the reports about the use of
autobrakes. Stearney Jr. is representing the family of Joshua
Woods, the six-year old boy who died when the airliner skidded onto
a road and struck the car he was riding in.
"But did [the pilot] get the training to use that stuff when for
all these years Southwest has prohibited pilots from doing so?"
said the attorney. "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."
The NTSB has yet to determine what role, if any, the use of the
autobrakes may have had in last Thursday's accident. It is also not
known how the use of the autobrakes may have been related, if at
all, to earlier statements that there was a problem with the
deployment of the aircraft's two thrust reversers.