Minor ground collision at LGA

[ShiftyNJ]

Today two jets belonging to American Airlines and Southwest scraped together at LaGuardia Airport in NYC today. It appears that Southwest Flight WN0449, taxiing under its own power, clipped the horizontal stabilizer (the small "wing" near the tail) of American Airlines Flight 1104 (which was at or approaching a gate) with its port winglet, which snapped off. The winglets, vertical fins at the wingtips, are a somewhat recent innovation that help with fuel efficiency. The plane can fly safely without it, but it would affect handling, and the flight was scrubbed.

The central terminal at LGA is notoriously cramped and outdated; it was designed in the 1950s and supports much more traffic than it can easily accommodate, both airplanes and people.

I love reading articles after something like this many of which are cobbled together by people who have no knowledge of aviation and contain important information like tweets from teenagers on board. You see things like "two planes collided on the runway and our wing fell off. I don't think we can take off now." Pro tip: you're not on the runway until you're actively taking off or landing, and if a collision happened there, you would not likely have time to tweet about it.

[East]

Wow...sounds like they need an update....glad it was nothing too serious this time

I was watching a video on the most dangerous air ports in the world recently....maybe it was from here?




...and then there is this

http://www.architecturendesign.net/25-in...the-world/

[ck86]

I love reading articles after something like this many of which are cobbled together by people who have no knowledge of aviation and contain important information like tweets from teenagers on board. You see things like "two planes collided on the runway and our wing fell off. I don't think we can take off now."

Your comment reminded me of Rachel flying to Paris in Friends and her scaremongering with "this plane has no phalanges"

Made me chuckle.

Glad no one was hurt.

[ShiftyNJ]

Wow...sounds like they need an update....glad it was nothing too serious this time

I was watching a video on the most dangerous air ports in the world recently....maybe it was from here?

That's Maho Beach on St. Maarten, next to the Queen Juliana Int'l Airport (SXM). I have stood on that beach while a smallish jet (jetBlue A320) landed. A bunch of people on our cruise actually timed their day to be there when the biggest jet of the day (Air France A330, probably about the same size as that Alitalia bird) came in. I have been in the right (co-pilot) seat of a small plane landing there. It's not really that dangerous except for the people on the beach.

KLM brings 747s in there but only a few times a week:




The one that got me was Kai Tak (HKG) in Hong Kong, before built a new airport and they closed it. Because of its position, the glide slope had landing planes aimed straight at a mountain, then they made a sharp right turn when they were not far off the ground. As you approached the runway and cleared the other side of said moutain, you got clobbered by strong crosswinds. People think planes are always aimed right at the runway centerline, but there is a technique called "crabbing" which is used in these circumstances. Watch the angle of this 747 as it approaches touchdown:




The thing about LGA is it is hemmed in on all sides, by water, the Grand Central Parkway, and buildings. When Eastern got the A300 (a smallish widebody) the runways, which are partly on piers, were extended by a few hundred feet to make the minimum requirement, but there was a rash of planes (mostly USAir for some reason) landing in the drink.

I remember landing there on a Delta flight from MSP a few years ago ... to make things more fun, the proximity of JFK and noise regulations mean a complicated approach pattern where you don't line up to the runway until you're almost on final. When we were literally at the threshold, the landing was aborted and we went around. We didn't find out til later that a plane was dawdling on the intersecting runway (yes, the runways cross, more fun). The thing that impressed me was that on the second attempt, we followed that same approach pattern almost exactly.

The Central Terminal Building is scheduled to be demolished and replaced over the next few years, but it has to be done in sections while other parts of the building are still being used, because there is nowhere else to send the people and airplanes. The IAB (now Terminal 4) at JFK was replaced in much the same manner about ten years ago.