Plane slides off snowy runway at O’Hare Airport; no one injured

No one was injured Monday morning when an American Airlines flight with 41 people on board slid off a snowy runway while landing at O’Hare International Airport.

Flight 4125, inbound from North Carolina, was landing at O’Hare when the plane slid off the runway due to “icy conditions,” American Airlines said in a statement.

The Chicago Fire Department responded about 7:45 a.m. and removed everyone from the plane, according to department spokesman Larry Merritt. No one was injured, and the passengers were taken by bus to a gate, Merritt said.

A video posted to social media shows a plane landing on a snowy runway and turning sideways before sliding off the runway as a wing hit the ground.

The Embraer jet, inbound from Greensboro, North Carolina, had landed on Runway 10L about 7:45 a.m. and was attempting to exit to taxiway P4 when the plane’s right main landing gear collapsed and the plane slid off the runway, Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Tony Molinaro said in an email. He said the FAA is investigating.

O’Hare recorded surface winds of 22 mph and gusts in the 30s with “light snow blowing” about the time of the incident, according to a National Weather Service meteorologist. At least 1.6 inches of snow had fallen on the airport that morning.

In a statement, American Airlines said the jet’s 38 passengers and three crew members were deplaned safely. The flight was operated by Envoy Air, which is owned by American Airlines.

Amid the snowstorm, airlines canceled more than 640 flights at O’Hare, according to the Chicago Department of Aviation. A spokesperson for the CDA said the incident had a moderate impact in overall flight operations at the airport, but declined to comment further.

In 2018, the FAA issued a warning letter to the city of Chicago over its handling of a series of weather-related mishaps at O’Hare between 2015 and 2016, including an instance in December 2015 in which city crews allowed aircraft to continue to use Runway 10L when pilots reported that conditions were deteriorating.

Read our earlier coverage of runway problems at O’Hare Airport.