SOUTHWEST AIRLINES 345 DOES THE TEBOW AT LAGUARDIA (LGA)

July 22 SWA #345 lands nose first on runway 4 at LaGuardia. The nose wheel hits first, the nose gear collapses and the plane skids 2175 feet down a 7000 foot runway.

 The question is why do pilots fly a perfectly good airplane into the ground? Just 2 weeks previous an Asiana crew flew a perfectly good 787 into the seawall at San Francisco (SFO).

The SWA flight had a 15 minute hold into LGA and weather was above minimums when the plane landed. The FO was flying and had 11/2 years with SWA. For some reason at approximately 400 feel AGL the Captain assumed control of the airplane from the FO. The FO had about 6 landings at LGA while this was only the Captains 2nd landing at LGA.

I have talked to several friends who are/were longtime airline pilots. I was surprised to find out that on average they have had to take control of a flight on an average of 2 occasions throughout their career. None had stated that they took over control so low to the ground, they figured out things were not right way before. They were also surprised that the Captain did not do a go around when she saw there was a problem.

I have been told that one does not want to abort an approach at LGA due to the high volume of traffic at LGA, JFK and EWR. Just recently a Delta 747 did a go around at JFK. A Delta connection flight departing EWR almost ran into the 747 passing within 100 feet. This is not easy airspace to fly in, and in the mix is a very busy GA airport at Teterboro (TEB).

LGA is a difficult airport to land at but not that difficult. Runway 4 is 7000 feet and would terminate into water. To give a comparison the runway at Renton, WA (RNT), where 737’s are produced, is only a little over 5000 feet with ocean at the north end.

Both pilots had to provide an independent report to the NTSB and SWA. They have both been placed on administrative leave until the airline makes a decision. If one is a longtime employee of SWA without any previous incidents chances are they will be sent to recurrent and retained. If they are a short term employee, such as the FO, things do not look good for retaining a job at SWA. Of course there are other circumstances involved we will never know about.