Briefs: Midway skid a pilot error

Pilot error was a major contributor to a fatal accident at Chicago's Midway Airport during which a Southwest Airlines jet skidded through a barrier and hit several cars, killing a boy, a federal safety board concluded Tuesday. National Transportation Safety Board member Steven Chealander said the Boeing 737's crew made a bad decision to land that day two years ago during a snowstorm, and probably should have diverted the flight. The findings were the culmination of a more than six-hour NTSB hearing Tuesday on the Dec. 8, 2005 accident that led to 18 of the 103 airplane passengers and crew having minor injuries. The plane slid off the end of a 6,500-foot runway, through the airport fence and into highway traffic. Joshua Wood, 6, of Leroy, Ind., was killed when the plane struck the car in which he was riding. The NTSB said the probable cause of the accident "was the pilot's failure to use available reverse thrust in a timely manner to safely slow or stop the airplane after the landing."

Tax cap bill moves along

The state Senate is advancing a property tax relief plan backed by the governor in what could be another legislative battle among top Democrats. The Senate Executive Committee voted 8-1 Tuesday night to expand a proposal designed to limit the growth of property tax bills in Cook County to 7 percent. The plan lawmakers originally passed earlier this year included a homestead exemption of $33,000 that would slowly be reduced and phased out over three years. Gov. Rod Blagojevich said that wasn't enough relief and used his amendatory veto pen to raise the exemption to $40,000 and make it permanent. House Speaker Michael Madigan will decide whether lawmakers accept or reject Blagojevich's changes, and Madigan supports the original version.