The death is the first accident-related fatality in Southwest Airlines' 34 year history.

National Transportation Safety Board commission member, Ellen Engleman Conners, said today that the investigation into the crash could take as long as a year.

"We're not going to guess," she said. "We're going to focus on facts and science and data."

The child who died was identified today as Joshua Woods of Leroy, Ind.

Of the 13 people injured in the accident, three remain hospitalized, officials said. The airport, which was closed immediately after the accident, reopened today at 6 a.m. Central time. Southwest's chief executive, Gary C. Kelly, said today that the plane, a Boeing 737, had a routine maintenance inspection on Dec. 7, and was in good condition. But Mr. Kelly said it was too soon to conclude that inclement weather was the cause of the accident.

"It is still too early for me and inappropriate for Southwest to speculate on a cause," he said.

The accident occurred Thursday about 7:15 p.m. Central time after Flight 1248 had circled Midway for 35 minutes during an intense snowstorm and heavy airport traffic, Mr. Kelly said. The flight's departure from Baltimore/Washington International Airport had been delayed two hours because of an intense snowstorm that has blanketed much of the central part of the nation and reached the East Coast this morning.

By the time Flight 1248 arrived in Chicago on Thursday night, about 7 inches of snow had fallen on the city, although the runway had been plowed. At the time of the accident, it was covered with about one-sixteenth of an inch of snow, said Patrick J. Harney, acting commissioner of the Chicago Aviation Authority. Winds were gusting at about 13 miles per hour and visibility was about three-quarters of a mile.

"I saw snow rush over the wing, then there was a big bump," said a passenger, Larry Vazzano, 54, of Baltimore, according to The Associated Press. "I braced myself on the seat in front of me."

As the plane, with 98 passengers and five crew members aboard, was landing, it skidded on the runway, plowed through a perimeter fence and struck two vehicles. The car in which Joshua Woods was riding was pinned beneath the airplane. The disabled plane, resting at an angle and covered with snow, created an incongruous scene today as it remained on a normally busy roadway off the northwest edge of the airport, which is located in a residential neighborhood.

Ms. Conners said the plane would likely not be removed until Saturday at the earliest to give investigators time to comb over the crash site.

"We don't want to rush it," she said.

Passengers were evacuated through inflatable slides and stairs at the rear of the plane into blowing snow.

"Weather will be a factor that will be under examination as it always is in N.T.S.B. investigations," said Ms. Conners. "One thing we're not going to do is jump to a conclusion."

Officials said braking action on the runway, which was the only one open at the airport at the time because of the weather, was deemed acceptable both before and after the accident. The plane's flight recorder was recovered and is being analyzed by the N.T.S.B.

The pilot, whose name has not been released, is a 59-year-old man with 10 years flight experience with Southwest.

Midway airport, the smaller of Chicago's two primary airports, after O'Hare, is in the middle of a residential neighborhood and has relatively short runways - about 6,500 feet long. Under normal circumstances, a 737 needs about 4,900 feet to land, authorities said.

But Mr. Kelly seemed to cast doubt on speculation that Midway's short runways had been a factor in the crash.

"We've operated at Midway airport for 20 years without incident," he said.

The crash occurred exactly 33 years after an airplane crashed into a house while approaching Midway, bursting into flames and killing 45 people. Among the passengers killed were United States Representative George Collins and Dorothy Hunt. Her husband, E. Howard Hunt, had been indicted for conspiring to break into Democratic National Committee headquarters in the Watergate Hotel in Washington.

Here's the link if you want it...www.nytimes.com/2005/12/09/national/09cnd-plane.html?ex=1134795600&en=01495df1b2a218a4&ei=5040&partner=MOREOVERNEWS