| CNN | - |
(CNN)
-- New York's LaGuardia Airport reopened a runway closed after a
jetliner skidded into the grass when its nose gear collapsed Monday, a
spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said
Tuesday.
'Pretty chaotic' as landing gear on Southwest jet collapsed, passenger says
updated 2:48 PM EDT, Tue July 23, 2013
Runway reopens after hard landing
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- NEW: National Transportation Safety Board to investigate incident at LaGuardia airport
- The Boeing 737 is moved to a hanger for inspection
- A passenger describes "a bang and a bounce" as the nose gear fails
- Ten people sustained minor injuries
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(CNN) -- U.S. transportation safety investigators
will try to find out why the front landing gear of a Southwest Airlines
jetliner collapsed during landing at New York's LaGuardia airport,
causing the Boeing 737-700 to skid down the runway on its nose.
The National
Transportation Safety Board said on Tuesday it would conduct a full
investigation of Monday's incident that injured 10 people aboard Flight
345 from Nashville and halted operations during a busy time of day at
one of the nation's most congested airports.
Passengers later recalled
harrowing moments of an airliner in trouble as it barreled down the
runway with its nose scraping the ground. Smoke filled the cabin as cell
phones and other items flew around the inside of the plane. Passengers
escaped the jet down emergency slides.
LaGuardia flight delays
related to the incident impacted the morning rush as crews removed the
disabled twin-engine jet from the edge of Runway 4. It was transported
to a hanger where investigators will examine the landing gear systems.
The runway was then reopened for traffic, according to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates LaGuardia.
NTSB protocol involves
reviewing cockpit voice and data recorders as well as interviewing crew
members and reviewing flight logs and maintenance records. Boeing and
the Federal Aviation Administration will also be party to the
investigation as is customary.
Southwest said in a statement that it was working with the NTSB and Boeing.
The plane, which entered
service nearly 14 years ago, was last inspected on July 18, Southwest
said. No details about the inspection were released.
Flight 345 was carrying 150 people when it arrived in New York from Nashville at about 5:40 p.m. ET.
"The aircraft skidded
down the runway on its nose and then veered off and came to rest in a
grass area between the runway and taxiway foxtrot," Thomas Bosco, the
airport's general manager, told reporters. It stopped about halfway down
the 7,000-foot runway.
Kathy Boles, a passenger, said a "strong jolt" shook the cabin when the gear failed and the nose slammed into the tarmac.
"It was just a bang and a
bounce, and then a slam on the brakes and a skidding feeling," Boles
told CNN's "Anderson Cooper 360°."
"I feel extremely
blessed to have come off that," she said. "It just really felt like the
plane could have broken in half, it was such a hard impact."
Fellow passenger Anastasia Elliot said the situation was "pretty chaotic."
"We hit the ground
pretty hard and slid," she said. "There was a lot of smoke filling the
plane, just a lot of smoke and burnt rubber."
Another passenger said it felt like the plane crashed and then skidded to a stop.
"Everything in the plane
that was loose went flying forward," Bill Roland said. "There were cell
phones, iPads, books (and) drinks all skidded up."
In addition to 10 hurt on the plane, a Port Authority police officer was treated for heat exhaustion, Bosco said.
Initially, the FAA said
the crew reported a possible nose gear problem before landing but later
amended that to say no issues were noted ahead of time after a review of
air controller tapes.
The 737 has a
conventional hydraulic landing gear system -- a unit under each wing and
a steerable wheel that extends from under the nose.
Pilots can land safely
with only the main gear operable as those wheels absorb the weight of
the plane when it first meets the runway. The nose is then set down for
the remainder of the landing roll.
Nose gear problems on
commercial jets occur from time to time, but the crew normally would be
alerted to any issue during approach by warning lights and would have
time to abort a landing or come in on just the back wheels.
Southwest is the biggest domestic airline and flies only 737s. It has more than 600 of the workhorse aircraft in its fleet.
Monday's incident followed a runway crash of an Asiana Airlines jetliner in San Francisco last month.
Investigators in that
crash will not determine a cause for several months at least, but
initial attention has focused on actions of the crew during approach.
CNN's Caleb Silver contributed to this report.
end quote from:
http://www.cnn.com/2013/07/23/travel/southwest-laguardia/index.html
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