Jetliner Skids Off Runway During Storm

NEW YORK —  A Delta jetliner’s landing gear collapsed after it struck a light post positioned to guide planes into La Guardia Airport, sending the aircraft skidding off the runway during a violent storm Saturday. All 63 people aboard were evacuated safely.

Delta Air Lines Flight 554 from Atlanta slid on its belly and spun around before stopping on the end of Runway 13. The MD-80 aircraft came to rest at an angle with one of its wheels stuck in the mud. It stopped before it reached Flushing Bay, which abuts the runway.

George Marlin, Port Authority executive director, said: “It appears the plane hit at least one of those light posts. At that point . . . the flight gear appears to have collapsed. The plane slid down the runway and spun around 180 degrees.”

Emergency vehicles surrounded the plane as passengers slid out on a chute. They were quickly driven away, and then crews began foaming down the plane. Marlin said one person was slightly injured leaving the plane.

The airport, one of the nation’s busiest, was shut down after the accident. Port Authority police Officer Mariann Baumbuch said the plane would be left on the runway’s edge until this morning while National Transportation Safety Board investigators examined it. The airport was expected to reopen once the plane was moved.

NBC sportscaster Greg Gumbel was among the passengers. He said he felt a “sharp veer to the right” as the plane approached the runway.

“The plane drifted to the right, and then something hit hard,” he said. “Then the plane started to skid to the right, the back end came out and to the right, and we ended up going down the runway sideways.”

The accident came in the midst of a wicked nor’easter that brought driving rain, fog and winds up to 60 mph to the area.