WASHINGTON, 26 July 2013. As predicted, National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) officials confirmed that the Boeing 737-700 airliner’s front landing gear collapsed on landing, causing Southwest Airlines Flight 345 to crash-land nose-first on 22 July 2013 at New York's LaGuardia Airport.
The NTSB’s findings follow:
· 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.
· 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 will convene at NTSB laboratories in Washington to transcribe the relevant portion of the accident flight.
