Plane incidents reported at Chicago airport on Christmas Eve

A passenger plane taking off from Chicago’s O’Hare Airport skidded off a taxiway and another plane was forced to return to the airport after experiencing engine problems, according to airport officials.

An American Airlines MD-80 with 54 passengers and five crew members on board was taxiing before take off when it skidded on a patch of ice, an airline spokeswoman, Mary Frances Fagan, said.

No one was hurt on American Airlines flight 1544, noted Elizabeth Isham Cory, a spokeswoman for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

The plane’s nose tires and tires on its left side slid off the taxiway onto the grass, she added.

Passengers deplaned and were taken by bus back to the terminal, where the airline made alternative arrangements for them to reach their destination, which was Washington D.C.’s Regan National Airport.

In a second incident, which occurred early Wednesday evening, another of American’s MD-80s had departed O’Hare for St. Louis, with 76 passengers and a crew of five on board, when a problem with one of the plane’s engines made it necessary for the pilot to return to O’Hare.

The FAA spokeswoman said that the plane was approximately 15 miles from O’Hare when the pilot radioed in his concern about one of the engines.

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