NEW YORK — A Southwest Airlines jet that made a hard landing at New York's LaGuardia Airport touched down on its front nose wheel before the sturdier main landing gear in back touched down, federal investigators said Thursday.
The nose-pointed-down landing described by investigators violated the airline's normal procedures, Southwest said.
Flight 345 from Nashville, Tenn., skidded off the runway Monday and came to rest on its nose after the front landing gear crumpled. About 150 people were aboard the Boeing 737, and 16 passengers suffered minor injuries.
The National Transportation Safety Board released preliminary information about the accident late Thursday. The finding was based on video and other evidence, it said.
NTSB spokesman Eric Weiss would not say whether pilot error contributed to the hard landing or if the nose gear should have been able to withstand the impact.
"That's something we're going to look at during the investigation," Weiss said.
Whitney Eichinger, spokeswoman for Dallas-based Southwest, said the "landing scenario that the NTSB described is not in accordance with our operating procedures." She provided no further details.
About 4 seconds prior to touchdown, the plane's pitch was about 2 degrees nose-up, the NTSB revealed. When the plane touched the runway, it was pitched down about 3 degrees, it said.
