Chicago ? A jetliner trying to land in heavy snow slid off a runway, crashed through a fence and slid into a busy street, hitting one vehicle and pinning another beneath it.

A 6-year-old boy in one of the vehicles was killed, authorities said. He was among eight people hurt on the ground. Two passengers on the plane suffered minor injuries, Aviation Department spokeswoman Wendy Abrams said.

Southwest Airlines Flight 1248 from Baltimore was landing at Midway International Airport with 98 passengers and five crew. The airport reported 7 inches of snow Thursday, but Abrams said runway conditions at the time were acceptable.

The nose of the plane was crushed in the accident and a severely damaged engine was on the ground, Chicago Fire Department spokesman Larry Langford said.

“It got really bumpy, and then a big crashing sound,” passenger Katie Duda told WMAQ-TV. The next thing she knew, the airplane had skidded past the airport and into the street, she said.

“Everyone was very calm. Everyone around me seemed very OK,” she said.

The passengers used inflatable slides to get out of the plane in the blowing snow.

All the injured on the ground were in the two vehicles. The 6-year-old boy was dead on arrival at Advocate Christ Medical Center, a hospital spokeswoman said.

A Southwest Airlines aircraft slid off a runway at Midway International Airport in Chicago and onto a nearby street Thursday as it attempted to land amid heavy snow and wind, authorities said Thursday night.

Midway was closed after the accident, and Abrams said she did not know when it would reopen.

The Boeing 737 slid through the northwest corner of the airport, through the boundary fence and into the road, according to the Federal Aviation Administration’s regional office in Chicago. Langford said at least two vehicles were damaged, and one was pinned under the plane.

Midway, Chicago’s second largest after O’Hare International, is closely bordered by streets lined with homes and businesses. It serves more than 17 million travelers a year, many of them on Southwest.

National Transportation Safety Board and FAA officials from Washington were on their way to investigate.

While Abrams was confident runway conditions were not to blame, James Burnett, a former NTSB chairman, said investigators would likely focus on the weather.