Delta Air Lines Flight 1086

Delta Air Lines Flight 1086 was a scheduled Delta Air Lines domestic passenger flight between Atlanta and New York's LaGuardia Airport. On March 5, 2015, the McDonnell Douglas MD-88 aircraft veered off the runway shortly after landing at LaGuardia Airport in New York City. The plane ran up the seawall berm and struck the perimeter fence, sliding along it for approximately 940 ft before coming to rest with the nose of the aircraft hanging over the berm above Flushing Bay. There were no fatalities, although 29 people suffered minor injuries. The aircraft was seriously damaged and written off.

The final report by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) found the probable cause of the accident was the pilot's "inability to maintain directional control of the airplane due to his application of excessive reverse thrust, which degraded the effectiveness of the rudder in controlling the airplane's heading."

History of the flight

Flight 1086 took off from Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport at 8:45am EST, and was scheduled to land at LaGuardia Airport at 10:48 am. LaGuardia Airport was under falling snow and freezing fog conditions at the time of arrival, with the captain reportedly telling passengers that weather problems could cause a delay. Another Delta Air Lines MD-88 had landed on runway 13 about three minutes prior to Flight 1086. The pilots of this preceding flight confirmed that air traffic controllers relayed the braking action reports to the flight crew of Delta 1086; these reports were based on pilot reports from two other flights that landed several minutes prior to flight 1086. Both earlier flights had reported the braking action on the runway as "good". Statements by the pilots to the NTSB after the crash revealed that the runway appeared all white (covered with snow) when the airplane descended out of the overcast, seconds before landing.

Accident

The aircraft was approaching runway 13 to land on what appeared to be a normal final approach. The aircraft was aligned with the runway centerline, the autopilot remained engaged until the aircraft was about 230 ft above ground level, and airspeed during the final approach was about 140 kn, and 133 kn at touchdown. The aircraft touched down at 11:02 am with the main landing gear close to the runway centerline. The MD-88 veered off the left side of the runway shortly after touchdown, about 3000 ft from the approach end of the runway, on a heading approximately 10 degrees left of the runway heading. The MD-88 skidded left across the snowy airfield until about 4100 ft from the approach end of the runway, when the aircraft ran up the berm and the left wing struck the airport perimeter fence. It then was forced back onto a heading parallel with runway 13, and continued sliding in this direction for another 900 ft along the perimeter fence, before coming to rest about 5000 ft from the approach end of runway 13, with the nose of the aircraft hanging over the berm. The left wing of the aircraft destroyed approximately 940 ft of airport perimeter fence.

The aircraft sustained significant structural damage. There was major damage to the left wing's leading edge, leading edge slats, trailing edge flaps, and spoilers. The left wing fuel tank was breached near the outboard end of the outboard flaps. The front radome and weather radar were heavily damaged, and damage to the underside of the fuselage extended from the front of the aircraft back to the left front passenger door. The nose landing gear well and the main electronics bay also were damaged. Delta subsequently declared the aircraft a hull loss, making the accident the 37th hull loss of a McDonnell Douglas MD-80.

The crew of the plane managed a complete evacuation only after more than 17 minutes, while the aircraft was leaking fuel. Twenty-nine passengers suffered minor injuries, all of whom were sent to the hospital. Two days later, all injured passengers had been discharged.

The airport was closed immediately after the accident at approximately 11 am. The other runway was reopened beginning at 2:30 pm. Runway 13/31 was closed until 10:30 am the next morning as emergency services cleared the accident site and the aircraft was removed into a hangar.

Among the passengers on the flight was former football player Larry Donnell.