NTSB says Southwest plane landed incorrectly in nose gear collapse

[hrmjustin]

Eyewitness News

NEW YORK -- The NTSB says that they have found that the Southwest plane landed on its front landing gear first before the main-rear landing gear, making it a hard landing.

That caused the nose landing gear to break and created the hard landing at LaGuardia Airport on Monday.

The recorders were recovered Tuesday afternoon, one day after the hard landing caused LaGuardia's temporary closure. Officials say the recorders were sent to the National Transportation Safety Board's lab in Washington for downloading and analysis.

The nose gear of Southwest Airlines Flight 345 arriving from Nashville, Tenn., collapsed Monday right after the plane touched down on the runway, officials said.

Read more at http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=news/local/new_york&id=9183187

[DemoTex]

1. That's hard to do.

I have thousands of hours in Boeing 737s, and I can't picture landing nose-gear first. However, I CAN picture a very hard landing on the main gear with a forward pitching that could - indeed - damage the nose-gear.

[enlightenment]

2. I watched a SW 737

come in at McCarran the other day and was flat flabbergasted at the touchdown. Came down hard and fast, both rear gear hitting at the same time and then down on the nose so fast I could see the bounce from the road.

Probably rattled the fillings out of the passengers' teeth.

My dad flew heavies in the AF for 30 years and we used to watch landings for hours. He'd critique each one and rarely did I hear "greased it" (okay - he was hard to please). I can only imagine what he would have said about the one I saw.

Pilot definitely didn't grease that one.