CHICAGO — Tucked in the middle of a southwest Chicago neighborhood, Midway International Airport is surrounded by brick bungalows and family-owned businesses such as Darla's Dance Center. Holiday lights are sprinkled across the rooftops, and elaborate manger scenes grace neatly trimmed lawns.
Friday morning, amid the snow-covered porches and life-sized baby Jesus dolls, sat the airplane.
As aviation experts began examining the listing hull of the Boeing 737-700 that slid off the end of a runway during a snowstorm Thursday night and crashed into two cars, federal officials said it could take up to a year to complete their investigation.
The crash of Southwest Airlines Flight 1248 killed Joshua Woods, 6, and injured his parents and two siblings. The Woods family had been on their way to visit the children's grandparents when they stopped at a red light on Central Avenue, at the northwest corner of the airport, attorney Ronald Stearney Jr. said.
"Joshua and the other kids were looking out the windows, watching the planes," Stearney said. "They could hear a loud roaring; they thought it was a plane taking off, but it kept getting louder and louder. The noise was deafening at the impact."
Six other people -- four on the ground and two in the airplane -- suffered injuries that ranged from serious to minor, according to Southwest officials and the National Transportation Safety Board.
Curious neighbors gathered at the crash site Friday afternoon, braving biting winds and freezing temperatures to peer past police barricades and catch a glimpse of the snow-covered orange and blue jet.
"Everyone knows everybody here," said Autumn Aumann, 21, a dance instructor at Darla's who has lived in the neighborhood all of her life. "At first, everyone was wondering who was hurt. All last night and today, we were asking, 'Do you know who it was?'
"When you find out it's not one of your family members, you feel guilty for breathing a sigh of relief. Because the very next feeling is being horrified for that poor family."
The accident happened as a snowstorm swept through the Midwest. Plows at the airport worked to keep up as an inch of snow fell each hour, said Patrick J. Harney, acting commissioner of the Chicago Department of Aviation.
Before being cleared for landing on the airport's 6,500-foot center runway, the flight from Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport, circled above Midway for about half an hour, Southwest Chief Executive Gary C. Kelly told reporters. The weather and flight traffic caused the delay.
