US: Pence plane’s skid shows risks of tight runways at LaGuardia

The out-of-control landing that sent Republican vice president candidate Mike Pence’s plane fishtailing off the runway Thursday at New York’s LaGuardia Airport is the latest in a series of runway mishaps at one of the US’s tightest and busiest airports. The NTSB sent an 11-person team to investigate the accident. Since 2013, the agency has conducted two previous major accident investigations involving planes sliding off runways at LaGuardia. Pence’s chartered Boeing Co. 737-700 landed hard, slid sideways and came to rest in a grassy area during a rain storm at about 7:42 p.m., NTSB board member Robert Sumwalt said Friday. There were no injuries, although the airport was briefly closed and emergency crews were called to the scene. “When we landed, it was obvious I think to everybody on the plane that the pilots were hitting the brakes very hard,” Pence said Friday . “It was about 10 seconds of uncertainty but we were all fine.” The plane’s crash-proof data recorder showed the plane touched down at 140 miles an hour, Sumwalt said. While landing speeds vary depending on weight and other factors, that seemed to be within a normal range, he said. The preliminary data released by the safety board may offer some clues hinting at why the plane didn’t stop. Devices known as spoilers, panels on the top of the wings that come up after touchdown to help slow a plane, were broken, requiring pilots to set them manually, Sumwalt said. They deployed four seconds after touchdown, which is several seconds later than if they had come up automatically, he said.<br/>