Both nose gear tires on a Southwest flight out of Fort Myers lost air pressure while it landed at Chicago Midway, and mechanics changed them on the runway

Money & World

The Editorial Team · August 3, 2026

A black and white photograph of a dense stack of worn tires lying on their sides and overlapping, filling the frame with bands of tread pattern in several different designs. No aircraft, people, buildings, signage or lettering is in the frame. An illustration of tire rubber and tread, not a photograph of this aircraft or its landing gear.

Photo: Budget Bizar / Pexels

What it changes

The reason this belongs on a Southwest Florida page rather than a Chicago one is that the aircraft was ours for the first two hours of the morning. Flight 1243 pushed back from Southwest Florida International before dawn on Monday carrying passengers who had checked in at Fort Myers, and whatever went wrong with the nose gear tires either travelled with it from RSW or happened on the runway at Midway. Nobody has said which, and that is the honest state of it. The airline described the failure as both nose gear tires losing air pressure while landing, and that phrasing is worth holding onto rather than upgrading. Two Chicago stations put the word blowout in their headlines. Southwest did not use it, and the difference between a tire that deflates under load and a tire that bursts is the difference between a maintenance question and a very different sort of question. This site is reporting the carrier's own description because the carrier is the only party that has described it at all. What happened next is the part that reads well for everyone involved. The aircraft stopped on the runway rather than leaving it, emergency crews were already surrounding it by about 7 a.m. Central, and mechanics changed both tires where it sat before towing it to the gate. No injuries were reported by anyone. Two passengers, Mya Castro and Brian Rigsby, told ABC7 Chicago that they smelled burnt rubber once the aircraft came to a stop and could see some smoke, which Rigsby described as not excessive. That is a passenger account of what a hot tire smells and looks like after a hard stop, and it is reported here as theirs rather than as a finding about fire. For anyone flying out of RSW this week, the practical content is thin and should stay thin. One aircraft had one problem on one landing, no agency has opened a public investigation, no cause has been offered, and nothing has been said by anyone about the rest of the fleet or about the airport at either end. The airport itself was not involved in the failure and no RSW operation was disrupted. What is worth knowing is simply that it happened on a flight that left here, that the people on board walked off it, and that the tires were replaced on the spot rather than the aircraft being taken out of service in a way that has been reported. If the FAA or the NTSB says anything later, that will be a different item.

Southwest Airlines Flight 1243 left Southwest Florida International Airport on Monday morning and landed at Chicago Midway shortly after 7 a.m. Central with both of its nose gear tires flat.

The airline said both nose gear tires lost air pressure while the aircraft was landing. Emergency crews met it on the runway. ABC7 Chicago, whose helicopter was over the scene at about 7 a.m., reported that first responders surrounded the aircraft where it had come to a stop, and that the airframe is one of the carrier's specially painted jets, the one it calls California One.

Mechanics changed the tires on the runway and the aircraft was towed to the gate.

"We apologize for any inconvenience to our Customers," a Southwest spokesperson said in a statement carried by WINK News, which reported the Fort Myers end of the flight. "Nothing is more important to Southwest than the Safety of our Customers and Employees."

No injuries were reported.

Two passengers described the minutes after the aircraft stopped. Mya Castro told ABC7 Chicago that she realised they had stopped and were not close to getting off the plane, and that she could then smell burnt rubber. Brian Rigsby said that once the aircraft came to a stop they could see smoke, which he described as not excessive, and that they knew something was wrong. Those are passenger accounts of what they smelled and saw, and they are reported here as theirs.

The wording matters on one point. Southwest said the tires lost air pressure. Two Chicago stations wrote blowout in their headlines, and the airline did not, so the airline's description is the one used here.

No cause has been given. Neither the Federal Aviation Administration nor the National Transportation Safety Board has issued a statement on the landing, and no investigation by either has been announced, so none is described here. Nothing has been said by anyone about whether the condition originated at Fort Myers or on the runway in Chicago.

Southwest Florida International itself was not part of the failure, and no disruption to its operations has been reported at either end of the morning.

Where we read it: WINK News.

The document: No public filing has been released.

Both nose gear tires on a Southwest flight out of Fort Myers lost air pressure while it landed at Chicago Midway, and mechanics changed them on the runway

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