Reports Tell of Scramble in Southwest Airlines Cockpit Before La Guardia
Crash
By MATTHEW L. WALD
The nose wheel
of a Southwest Airlines plane collapsed after hitting the tarmac at La Guardia
Airport on July 22, 2013. Credit John Minchillo/Associated
Press
The captain of the Southwest Airlines jet that hit a
runway at La Guardia Airport in July 2013, causing the nose wheel to collapse
and injuring 11 people, may have been making major adjustments to the controls
too close to the ground, the National Transportation Safety Board said on
Tuesday.
That model of plane, a Boeing 737, usually lands with the wing
flaps set to 30 degrees, but because of winds, the crew had decided to set them
to 40. Fairly late in the approach, the captain noticed that the flaps were
actually at 30 degrees and moved them on her own, according to documents released on
Tuesday.
If the plane's altitude was below 1,000 feet, which it may have
been, the proper procedure would have been to abort the landing and go around
for another try, investigators said.
Shortly before touchdown, the
captain cut power to the engines and took control of the plane from the first
officer, who had been scheduled to conduct the landing, according to the
documents. The agency has not determined what caused the crash, but the
documents give the impression of a last-minute scramble aboard the plane, in a
somewhat tricky landing - on a short runway with a tailwind.
In an
interview with investigators, the captain said she had been concerned about
touching down too far along the runway.
"Get down. Get down. Get down,"
she told the first officer, who was flying the plane shortly before touchdown.
Then, a few seconds before the plane hit the runway, she said, "I got it," and
took control of the plane. Just before impact, she made what the cockpit voice
recorder transcript describes as a "sound similar to inhalation," and then
uttered an unspecified epithet.
Cockpit procedures are highly regulated,
but "there was no standardization for what she did," according to one of the
reports released by the board on Tuesday. The plane's nose was angled too far
down when the captain took control, the report said. She had cut the engine
power, and depending on the timing, cutting power can make the nose point down
even farther.
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