On Monday evening at about 5:45pm, a Southwest Boeing 737 apparently landed without its front landing gear at New York’s LaGuardia Airport. The aircraft, which landed on runway 4, can be seen with its nose gear either collapsed, or not at all lowered. It is still unclear whether the gear collapsed, or never dropped in the first place. According to FlightAware flight tracking, Southwest 345 from Nashville did not circle before landing. Due to the short length of the runways at LGA, it would be surprising if the crew intentionally landed without nose gear, leading us to believe it collapsed after landing. WABC in New York reports that there were three minor injuried, but that passengers did not evacuate. Southwest has issued the following statement: “Southwest Airlines flight 345 landed at New York’s LaGuardia at 5:40 PM Eastern Monday evening from Nashville. The aircraft is a Boeing 737-700. Eyewitness reports indicate the aircraft’s nose gear collapsed upon landing. There were 150 people on board including Customers and Crew. All Customers have been deplaned and transferred to the terminal. Initial reports indicate local responders are caring for five Customers and three flight attendants who have reported injuries at this time. Southwest is cooperating with local authorities, and the NTSB has been notified.” At this time, LGA is closed to all arriving traffic. The FAA says that departures headed to LGA will be held at their departure city until at least 9pm. LGA has now reopened to air traffic using runway 13, but arrival delays are approaching 4 hours. The NTSB issued a statement via twitter, saying “Investigator are gathering info on this evening’s Southwest flight 345 incident while landing at LaGuardia.” Southwest 345 Tower Communications, via LiveATC.net FlightStats reporting a total of 121 cancellations at #LGA so far today, with 514 delayed. Departures have now resumed, using runway 13. NBC New York has obtained security camera footage of Southwest 345 skidding across the runway on its nose. The aircraft appears to still be traveling at a high rate of speed when the nose impacted the runway: nycaviation/2013/07/southwest-boeing-737-involved-in-nose-gear-incident-at-lga/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+nycaviation+%28NYCAviation+%7C+Planespotting+and+Aviation+Photography%2C+Breaking+Airline+News%2C+Aviation+Discussion%29#.Ue6ZrtI3CSo
Posted on: Tue, 23 Jul 2013 14:58:00 +0000
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