Family Files Suit Over Midway Accident

CHICAGO_The family of a 6-year-old Indiana boy killed when a Southwest Airlines jet skidded off a runway and crashed into their car filed a wrongful death lawsuit Friday against the carrier and the plane's manufacturer.

The lawsuit filed on behalf of the parents of Joshua Woods in Cook County Circuit Court seeks damages in excess of $50,000.

The lawsuit alleges that Southwest was negligent in the Dec. 8 landing at Midway International Airport during a snowstorm and that Boeing shares some of the blame because of problems with the plane's thrust reversers, which are used to slow down the aircraft.

Among the errors the lawsuit cites is the carrier's attempt to land when deteriorating weather conditions dictated that the plane should be diverted and failing to calculate how much runway was needed for a safe landing.

Such problems are evidence of Southwest's "utter indifference and conscious disregard for the safety of others," the lawsuit said.

The lawsuit also alleged the aircraft was in an "unreasonably dangerous condition" when Boeing delivered it to Southwest and that Boeing's onboard software "gave an unrealistic margin of safety when interpreting how much stopping margin was available."

The thrust reversers have been at the center of the investigation of the crash.

The National Transportation Safety Board has said that the pilots should not have factored in the jet's thrust reversers when estimating how long it would take to stop the plane - which overshot the runway, skidded through a fence and crushed the car in which the boy was riding.

According to a preliminary investigation, the thrust reversers did not immediately kick in when the pilots tried to deploy them, and did not deploy until 18 seconds after landing.

Chicago-based Boeing and Dallas-based Southwest declined to comment.

>