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U.S. Agency Faults Pilot of Delta Jet That Slid Off La Guardia Runway

Delta Air Lines Flight 1086 from Atlanta veered off the runway and up an earthen berm above Flushing Bay on March 5, 2015. Credit Karsten Moran for The New York Times

A Delta Air Lines jet skidded off a snowy runway at La Guardia Airport and nearly plunged into Flushing Bay last year because its pilot used excessive force to slow the plane as it landed, federal transportation safety officials said on Tuesday.

The National Transportation Safety Board said the probable cause of the crash into a berm and fence at the water's edge was that the captain reversed the engines too aggressively. In trying to keep the plane from shooting off the end of the slippery runway, he inadvertently caused it to veer to the left toward the bay, the board concluded.

By the time he regained control, the plane was sliding toward a perimeter fence. It came to a rest with its nose hovering over the bay, its left wing broken and spewing fuel. But none of the 127 passengers and five crew members aboard were seriously injured.

"This was a very close call," Christopher A. Hart, the chairman of the safety board, said about the accident, which occurred on March 5, 2015. He added that "the passengers and crew of Delta Flight 1086 were fortunate to have survived this crash with no loss of life or serious injuries."

The board also found fault with the response once the plane came to a rest.

After the crash, it took the aircraft's crew 12 minutes to start evacuating the passengers over the right wing.

The evacuation was complicated by the failure of the plane's internal communication systems, the board said. But the board also faulted the three flight attendants for leaving their positions at the front and rear of the plane as well as for allowing passengers to retrieve their coats before getting out.

The board said that the captain did not convey any urgency to evacuate after the crash and that a video supplied by a passenger showed that the lead flight attendant did not announce the evacuation for six minutes. Passenger videos revealed that "the flight attendants were confused," the board said, about the timing of the evacuation, and it took them 17 minutes to get everyone off the plane.

Delta released a statement that said the airline respected the board's "findings, conclusions and recommendations" and would use its guidance to enhance the safety in its operations.

The Air Line Pilots Association said it was disappointed that the board placed the blame on the pilot, given all of the factors it cited. "The N.T.S.B.'s single probable cause failed to fully and directly acknowledge the multiple factors that contributed to the accident," the association said in a statement

A Delta spokeswoman said the pilots returned to work after "an appropriate period of training and evaluation in 2015."

As they brought Flight 1086 from Atlanta through a snowstorm, the pilots had received reports that the landing conditions at La Guardia were "good," the board's report said. But as the plane broke through the clouds, they were surprised to see the runway's "snowy appearance," the report said.

With about a quarter-inch of snow covering the tarmac, the conditions for landing were marginal, it said. The challenge of landing with a tailwind on a short, snow-covered runway that has water at one end "likely exacerbated the captain's situational stress," the board concluded.

Even before the plane's nose gear touched down, the pilot had applied the thrust reversers on both engines to supplement the plane's automatic brakes.

Almost immediately the engines were revving higher than the plane's maker, Boeing, recommends during landings on wet runways. So much reverse thrust can reduce the effectiveness of the rudder for steering, an effect known as "rudder blanking."

The plane quickly began drifting to the left and the pilot could not steer it back on course. At the repeated urging of the co-pilot to come "out of reverse," the pilot shut down the reverse thrusters. But by then, it was too late to prevent the plane from leaving the runway entirely.

In every similar instance investigators studied, the pilots revved the engines beyond the target level recommended by Boeing. That finding prompted the board to recommend that co-pilots be instructed to call out to notify the pilot when reverse thrusters have reached the recommended maximum levels for dry and wet conditions.

The board said that the operators of La Guardia had also reacted to the crash by deciding to send out notifications about landing conditions in bad weather at least once an hour. The airport, which is run by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, had not sent out an advisory for two hours before the accident because it said conditions had not changed in the interim.