Nose Gear Of The 737 Appears To Have Touched Down Before Main Gear

The NTSB has released factual information from the July 22 accident involving a Southwest Airlines Boeing 737-700 landing at New York’s LaGuardia Airport. The board says the airplane’s front landing gear collapsed on landing.

According to the board, evidence from video and other sources is consistent with the nose-gear making contact with the runway before the main landing gear.

The flight data recorder on the airplane recorded 1,000 parameters and contained approximately 27 hours of recorded data, including the entire flight from Nashville to New York. The cockpit voice recorder contains a two-hour recording of excellent quality that captures the entire flight from Nashville to New York and the accident landing sequence.

The FDR indicates that flaps were set from 30 to 40 degrees about 56 seconds prior to touchdown. Altitude was about 32 feet; airspeed was about 134 knots; and pitch attitude was about 2 degrees nose-up approximately 4 seconds prior touchdown.

At touchdown, the airspeed was approximately 133 knots and the aircraft was pitched down approximately 3 degrees. After touchdown, the aircraft came to a stop within approximately 19 seconds.

A cockpit voice recorder group convened Friday at NTSB laboratories in Washington to transcribe the relevant portion of the accident flight. The board says it will release more information "as events warrant."

(Image from YouTube video)

FMI: www.ntsb.gov