Not exactly SOP

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.