NTSB faults pilots in fatal Chicago skid

0 Comments | USA TODAY, October, 2007 | by Alan Levin

WASHINGTON -- Pilots of a Southwest Airlines jet took too long after touchdown to use their engines to slow down, causing the plane to slide off a snowy Chicago runway and kill a 6-year-old boy in a passing car, federal safety investigators ruled Tuesday.

While finding the pilots at fault in the 2005 accident, the bulk of the National Transportation Safety Board's (NTSB) report focused on broad failures by the airline and an inadequate system of measuring slick runways that gave pilots a false sense of security as they approached Midway Airport.

"This crew knew they were flying on the edge," board member Debbie Hersman said. "The problem was they didn't really know where the edge was."

Though most large airlines are now more cautious when...