Southwest Airlines has fired the captain of the flight that suffered a nose-first landing at New York's LaGuardia Airport on July 22, according to multiple reports obtained by USA Today.
A Southwest Flight, number 345, landed on its nose-gear, which caused the gear to collapse upon landing. Nine passengers onboard suffered minor injuries during the landing, according to Bloomberg News and Reuters.
The company fired the pilot last week, according to Whitney Eichinger, a spokeswoman for Southwest told the Associated Press. The firing occurred after the company had finished its review of the incident. The captain had previously flown for Southwest Airlines for 13 years, according to CNN.
"Upon completion of our internal review of the Flight 345 accident, last week the captain was terminated and the first officer is being required to undergo additional training," Eichinger told Reuters in a statement.
The airline has not released the identity of the pilots in the incident.
The National Transportation Board concluded that the captain suddenly took over from the first officer about 400 feet from the ground as the plane, a Boeing 737-700 approached the runway at LaGuardia. The result was the jet landed on its nose gear, which collapsed under the impact, sending the plane skidding along the runway until it stopped in the grass.
"Evidence from video and other sources is consistent with the nose-gear making contact with the runway before the main landing gear," the NTSB said in a statement on July 25, after the incident.
"The question is why the captain took control," Bill Waldock, a professor who teaches accident investigation at the Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Arizona, said to Bloomberg News. "Normally, unless something major is wrong, the flying pilot is going to maintain control.
"The flying pilot can feel what the airplane is doing," he continued. "When the captain takes control, it takes him a few seconds to understand what's happening."
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