At least 10 people suffered minor injuries when a Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 skidded to a rough landing Monday at New York's LaGuardia Airport as its front landing gear collapsed, authorities said.
Six of the 149 people aboard Southwest Flight 345, from Nashville, Tenn., to New York, were being treated at Elmhurst General Hospital after the jet came to a stop on Runway 4 at 5:45 p.m. ET, said Thomas Bosco, the airport's general manager and acting aviation director for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. Four others refused treatment, he said.
LaGuardia Airport General Manager Thomas Bosco says the nose gear of a Southwest Airlines flight collapsed, causing it to have a hard landing.
The airport, which was closed after the accident, was reopened at 7 p.m. ET, Bosco said.
There was no immediate explanation for why the landing gear malfunctioned. The Federal Aviation Administration said Monday night that the pilot "reported possible front landing gear issues before landing," but it gave no further details.
The National Transportation Safety Board said it was sending an investigator to gather information. It told NBC News that it hadn't yet decided whether to dispatch a full investigative team.
Bosco said the jet remained on the runway, which he said could be reopened Tuesday.
About a dozen emergency vehicles surrounded the Southwest plane, whose passengers evacuated by the rear chute and were taken by bus to the terminal. Bosco said none of the injuries occurred during the evacuation.
"It's a surreal scene here given what just happened in the Bay Area," Sam Brock of NBC Bay Area, who saw the incident from another plane he was on at the airport, told NBC New York in an on-air telephone interview, referring to the crash of Asiana Flight 214 early this month at San Francisco International Airport.
Brock said the pilot of his flight told passengers that there were no serious injuries and no sign of fire or flames on the Southwest plane.
Steve Czech, who was on the runway waiting for his American Airlines flight to take off, told NBC New York that he saw the Southwest plane touch down.
"There was just this fireball going down the runway. It was unbelievable — it was probably 300 yards from us, if that," Czech said.
"Clearly, there was no nose gear," he said. "It was just screeching down the runway, fire on both sides. There was debris kind of rolling off to the sides."
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