It does look like the nose gear was down first. It will be interesting to see what happened.

I am now wondering if one of the pilots had the brakes on (his feet on the rudders) or the parking brake was somehow on.

 

OR the nose was the first to hit the runway and thus collapsed.....

I am now wondering if one of the pilots had the brakes on (his feet on the rudders) or the parking brake was somehow on.

 

OR the nose was the first to hit the runway and thus collapsed.....

It looked like the latter to me from watching the passenger video.

I am now wondering if one of the pilots had the brakes on (his feet on the rudders) or the parking brake was somehow on.

 

OR the nose was the first to hit the runway and thus collapsed.....

The parking brakes have a master warning connected to them so that shouldn't be the issue. When landing something this heavy and fast it will blow the tires quickly and the mains seemed to be intact still.

I am now wondering if one of the pilots had the brakes on (his feet on the rudders) or the parking brake was somehow on.

 

OR the nose was the first to hit the runway and thus collapsed.....

If you watch the video shot from the passenger cabin, it should be apparent that the pilot came in flat to nose down, never flared for landing and hit the ground hard, possibly even hitting the ground with the nosewheel first. Another example of an accident from pressing an unstable approach. And the wreckage of the asiana 777 at sfo is even still visible from the terminal.

The parking brakes have a master warning connected to them so that shouldn't be the issue. When landing something this heavy and fast it will blow the tires quickly and the mains seemed to be intact still.

Yes and the other tell that they didn't land with the parking brakes set is that they weren't doing 360s on the runway.

Tweets from NTSB today:

 

SWA: Altitude was 32 feet, airspeed was 134 knots, and pitch attitude was 2 degrees nose-up 4 seconds prior to touchdown. All approx.

 

At touchdown at LGA, the SWA 737's airspeed was approximately 133 knots and the aircraft was pitched down approximately 3 degrees.

So in four seconds its pitch went down 5 degrees?

The NTSB needs to keep its collective mouth shut until the investigation is complete.

It appears to me the pilot misjudged his flare and touched down on the nose gear first.....that is an abnormal landing.

 

Normally the main gear touch's first then the nose gear later.

 

Of course, we will have to see if there is new data that will be dug up in the investigation.

 

Bill Clark

The NTSB needs to keep its collective mouth shut until the investigation is complete.

Good point, as she spouted all kinds of theories before the official findings just to maintain a high news media spotlight on that SFO Asiana

Good point, as she spouted all kinds of theories before the official findings just to maintain a high news media spotlight on that SFO Asiana

Now I admit I didn't watch all the media briefings, but the only things I saw the NTSB present were factual data that had been uncovered, which are then of course by definition official findings.

It's a bit of a Catch-22 really, as if the NTSB didn't say anything they would be accused of secrecy instead.

If the plane went from +2 to -3 degrees pitch, was is commanded or did they hit a downdraft?  Were they too far down the runway and needed to get 'er down?

 

The beauty of flight data and cockpit voice recorders is that we will get answers we can trust.

Scary stuff!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMhQoltYAVA

Somebody at my old airline who saw the whole thing said they hit the ground hard without flaring, on the mains, then bounced and poiposed into hitting the ground again with the nose. That pretty much looks like what this vid shows.

OOM error I bet...