Southwest Captain Reduced Power Before NYC Crash Landing

"I've got it".....(famous last words). Other than, "Hey, watch this!"

Jokes aside, it's obvious that this Captain (if uncomfortable for some reason with the F/O's performance) should have simply said "TOGA" (Go-Around..."Flaps 15, Positive Rate...Gear Up check altitude, call the Tower") and sorted it out.

Years ago my F/O flying, landing at KLAS...our own company just ahead took their own sweet time, ALL the way to the end of 25L. So, I saw the situation, and figured the Tower would tell us to go around, so I mentioned to my F/O the normal litany (for the B-757, in this case). It's rare to go-around, so it's nice to think it through in your head, first.

Well, she apparently didn't grasp my "subtlety" of meaning. Because, when ATC said "Go around" it was a 'deer-in-the-headlights' moment. So, my old CFI days kick in, and it's time to "coach" her through it, as an Instructor. I ALSO had to mention that the A/P was available too.....as I observed her "death-grip" on the control wheel. (LOL).

Ah......good times! CAVU day....we just circled left, vectored around and landed on 19L.

MY AIRPLANE and TOGA simplifies a whole lot.

I was a check airman at a major carrier. I did a 4 day IOE with a transition captain from the 727, to the 737. Such was normally a 4 leg evolution. After 4 days, I could not sign the captain off. No way. I wrote two letters to the Chief LCA describing the problems.

The company promptly found another check airman who did sign that captain off....much to my surprise. I called the CLCA and asked what was going on. He told me that the company had decided to get the captain signed off because she had sued the company on multiple occassions for sexual harrassment and that they were required to have her lawyer sit in the simulator for her check-rides. If they didn't pass her, she would sue again.

I told the LCA that this pilot should never have been allowed to command an aircraft. I further stated that dealing with sexual harrassment lawsuits was above my pay grade, but he could go to the bank with one fact: when she had her incident, or God forbid, accident, I would release both my letters to the media about her incompetence.

Two days later, on her first trip as a 737 captain, she had a minor incident in Austin, TX that scared her so badly she could not taxi the plane off the runway. The copilot called in and said he wouldn't continue the rotation with her.

She was called in, terminated on a "medical" with a 2 million dollar payout. That was the cheapest $2 million the airline ever spent.

I wonder if SWA had been warned about this captain before.

Geez, there was no leadership in the Cockpit in those final frames of time

Whatever happened to "Checklists", i.e. "Flaps set to ___." and Cockpit coordination and communications?

I maintained from Day 1 that this was a classic example of a real bad pilot error and it was a no brainer, after all the nose gear was the first to ram the ground, a NO-NO.

Slight OT, but mainstream media sometimes gives me a giggle: "...they hadn’t properly set the movable panels on the wings known as flaps...."

While flying a mission on behalf of Angel Flight Southeast last afternoon, I listened to the chatter between Orlando Approach and a pilot of a Mexican airline. My passengers wanted to know why the pilot requested a go-around.

Further statements by the pilot told us he was uncomfortable with the assigned runway, which was on the other side of the airport from his assigned gate.

ATC gave him the go-around and an approach for a better runway.

What happens when a pilot gets fired?

No surprise here...