Southwest Airlines Boeing 737-700 skids off runway at Burbank Airport

On 6 December, a Southwest Airlines Boeing 737-700 (N752SW) skidded off the end of the runway upon arrival at Burbank Airport. The aircraft rolled into the overrun area known as EMAS (Engineered Material Arresting System, read more below), which is designed to stop an aircraft that goes off the end of a runway. The aircraft was operating a domestic U.S. flight between Oakland and Burbank as WN278.

“Passengers have been deplaned from the aircraft via air stairs, and there were no reported injuries among the 112 Customers and five crew members,” the airline wrote in a statement, “The Southwest Team is working diligently to get Customers to their destinations as soon as possible. We encourage Customers traveling via Burbank today to check their flight status via Southwest.com.”

Local weather at the time consisted of reduced visibility (1 mile) and intense rainfall.

Many of them didn’t realize something went wrong. Pet Nicks, one of the passengers, tweeted: “We are alive. The plane was a few feet from plowing thru the barrier and taking out numerous cars. Crazy stuff.” The airport briefly shut down for arriving traffic but is now operating, albeit with some possible disturbances.

Southwest Airlines statement on flight 278

Southwest Airlines Employees are in the process of getting the 112 Customers from Flight 278 (Oakland to Burbank) their luggage and belongings. Nearly all the passengers had Burbank as their final destination, and Southwest is working with the few remaining Customers to get them on connecting flights to their destinations.

The aircraft is currently located in a runway overrun area known as the Engineered Material Arresting System (EMAS), and Southwest will conduct a damage assessment and work to move the aircraft from the concrete pad.

The airline is refunding the cost of Customers’ roundtrip airfare as well as including an additional gesture of goodwill.

Southwest operations to/from Burbank are anticipated to return to a normal schedule later this afternoon. We encourage Customers who are traveling today to/from Burbank to check their flight status at Southwest.com.