A passenger jet landing in a snowstorm in Chicago skidded off the runway through a steel barrier and into a busy road, crushing two cars and killing a six-year old boy.
Another 11 people were injured in the crash. All 90 passengers and eight crew members of the Boeing 737 from Baltimore, Maryland, were evacuated. Three suffered minor injuries.
The aircraft's landing wheels snapped off when it touched down at Midway airport, causing the plane to overrun the 2km (6,288-foot) runway and smash through a steel barrier, through the perimeter fence and onto a busy intersection.
The jet crashed into two cars: one lay crumpled against the nose while the second was pinned beneath a wing.
One of the cars was carrying a family of five - three children and two adults. A six-year-old boy in the car was killed. Four other occupants were injured and taken to hospital. A hospital spokeswoman said that the father and a baby were in serious condition, the mother was in good condition and a four-year-old boy was in a fair condition.
Four people in the car wedged beneath the plane’s wing were in serious but stable condition, the spokeswoman added. Locals described the relatively low number of casualties as 'a miracle'.
The accident happened at about 7.15pm local time (0115 GMT Friday), as Flight 1248 was arriving at Midway, Chicago's second airport after O'Hare. About seven inches (18cm) of snow had fallen earlier in the day.
Truck driver Mahdi Abdelquader was driving on Central Avenue when the Boeing 737 flashed in front of his snowy windscreen.
"There was a loud noise, and it came out like it was like in the movies. I was praying to God," he told the Chicago Tribune.
"It hit the white car and dragged it and hit the pole. The lady in the car ... she asked us to help her," he said.
Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board were expected to arrive on scene later today. The landing conditions and condition of the landing gear are likely to form the focus of their inquiry.
Senior fire officer Cortez Trotter said that the aircraft would remain in the intersection of 55th Street and Central Avenue overnight.
Midway airport, built before the jet age, is notorious for its short runways. In severe weather pilots aim for the very start of the runway to give themselves as much room as possible to stop.
The crash came exactly 33 years after a United Airlines jet crashed into a house near the airport killing 43 people
my thoughts:
Daley has been trying to expand the airports in chicago for years with much opposition. Is this a conspiracy for daly to prove to them that he must expand?
a CHILD died because the runways werent long enough?
Just a thought.
Im a couple blocks from it and driving into work and seeing a plane across central ave. this morning was crazy.