NTSB: Southwest Airlines captain in 2013 accident should have done ‘go-around’ rather than attempt LaGuardia landing.

Southwest Hard landing La Guardia

NTSB: Southwest Airlines captain in 2013 accident should have done ‘go-around’ rather than attempt LaGuardia landing.

The captain of a Southwest Airlines flight that landed hard and badly at New York LaGuardia Airport two years ago should have aborted the landing and made another attempt, the National Transportation Board said Thursday.

The NTSB said it had “determined that the captain’s failed attempt to recover from an unstabilized approach by transferring airplane control at low altitude instead of performing a go-around, caused a hard landing” at LaGuardia on July 22, 2013.

In its release, the NTSB stated:

Contributing to the accident was the captain’s failure to comply with standard operating procedures during the approach. NTSB found that the first officer was conducting the approach, and the captain took control away from the first officer, but not until the plane was 27 feet above the ground.

This late transfer of control from the first officer to the captain resulted in neither pilot being able to effectively monitor the airplane’s altitude and pitch attitude.

According to the Southwest Airlines Flight Operations Manual, the captain should have called for a go-around well before this point in the approach instead of trying to salvage the landing.

For example, Southwest’s stabilized approach criteria require an immediate go-around if the airplane flaps are not in the final landing configuration by 1,000 feet above the ground. In this case, the flaps were not correctly set until the airplane was 500 feet above the ground.

“Southwest has fully cooperated with the National Transportation Safety Board’s investigation since the event occurred in 2013,” Southwest spokesman Brian Parrish said Thursday.

“Additionally, Southwest’s flight operations policies and training programs have been thoroughly reviewed to ensure required procedures are clear, comprehensive and directly support the safe operation of the airline’s more than 3,800 flights per day,” Parrish said. “Safety will always be the top priority at Southwest, and we thank the NTSB for their thorough investigation.”

The report said that eight of the 144 passengers suffered minor injuries. One of those passengers, Blake Arjoonsingh, filed a lawsuit Tuesday in U.S. District Court in New York seeking damages for “physical injuries, emergency hospital and other medical treatment, emotional and psychological injuries, a closed head injury and other losses.”

The airplane landed first on its front landing gear, causing it to collapse. The airplane slid for 2,175 feet before grinding to a stop on the right side of the runway. The airplane, a Boeing 737-700, was written off as a total loss.

http://aviationblog.dallasnews.com/

July 24, 2015

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