rote

Marc CYBW wrote:
The pilots of Southwest Airlines Flight 1248 were permitted to
attempt a landing in extremely bad weather at Midway Airport
because the low-cost carrier holds a special FAA waiver to
operate below regular minimum-visibility safety regulations,
federal officials said Wednesday.
...
Among the 10 airlines serving Midway, Southwest and ATA Airlines
have been granted waivers from the Federal Aviation
Administration allowing planes to land when visibility is below
three-fourths of a mile--the established standard on Runway 31
Center, where the Southwest accident occurred.

Pilots must be specially trained and log a required number of
landings with a certified pilot before receiving their own
certification allowing them to land at Midway with only one-half
mile visibility, called a "31Z approach."

This is not a waiver, it is standard operating procedure for most
Part 121 aircarriers. OPSPECS for Part 121 carriers specify standard
CAT I minimums as 3/4 mile visibility. Any carrier may operate to
the lower minimum of 1/2 mile visibility by simulator training (and
checking) their pilots to hand fly ILSs to 100' DA. This was standard
at the aircarriers for which I both prepared the OPSPECS and flew.
The 1/2 mile OPSPEC authorization was not airport specific.

Bob Moore
ATP
PanAm (retired)