LaGuardia Incident Causes Flight Delays In South Florida
MIAMI (CBSMiami) – A mishap at New York's LaGuardia Airport which forced the temporary closure of a runway has caused some flight delays into and out of South Florida.
Monday night a Southwest Airlines jet's nose gear collapsed on landing. Eight people, including three crew members, suffered minor injuries.
Ft. Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport report five flights were delayed Monday night due to the incident.
Tuesday morning the runway was cleared and re-opened but the delays continued. Fifteen arrivals and 16 departures were delayed up to three hours at Ft. Lauderdale. There were no cancellations.
At Miami International Airport, there was one cancellation and three delays on flights arriving from LaGardia Airport. Only one departure was delayed.
LaGuardia officials said a malfunction on the nose landing led to collapse which caused the jet to slam into the runway, jarring the 143 passengers and six crew members on board.
"There was a huge jolt, it was like you like completely went forward," said passenger Nadine Koo. "It was nothing like I've never experienced before."
"The nose wheel collapsed and immediately Port Authority police department aircraft rescue and firefighting crews responded immediately to take the passengers off the aircraft safely and transport them to the terminal," said LaGuardia Airport General Manager Thomas Bosco.
Despite being the latest in a series of airline accidents, experts say passengers shouldn't worry.
"There are 30,000 operations that occur every day in the United States. They fly safely without incident. When they do occur, that's extraordinary," said former National Transportation Safety Board Chairman Mark Rosenker. "This is something that's going to be looked at by the FAA and the NTSB to understand what happened, why it happened, and how they can prevent it from happening again."
