NEW YORK, Aug. 6 (UPI) -- The preliminary investigation into a hard landing at New York's LaGuardia airport pointed to an apparent overload of the nose landing gear, U.S. officials said.
The probe into the July 22 incident involving a Southwest Airlines flight did not turn up any mechanical problems that might have caused the nose landing gear to collapse when the Boeing 737 touched down at the conclusion of the flight from Nashville.
The National Transportation Safety Board said in a written statement Tuesday it appeared the plane somehow landed nose first, creating a "stress overload" that resulted in the nose landing gear buckling.
The rough landing caused 11 injuries and significant damage to the airliner.
The NTSB said the plane was under the control of the first officer as it headed for the runway. The first officer joined Southwest 18 months earlier and had 1,100 hours of flying time, none of which was as the pilot in command.
The pilot was a veteran of 5,200 hours and was monitoring the landing. He had only flown into LaGuardia once before and had not flown with the co-pilot before.
