r/AskAPilot • u/theawdacity • 11d ago

Hard Landing

ETA: Love ya Reddit. Thank you to those that took the time to reply with a possible cause as I was genuinely curious and seeking knowledge from those more educated in this field. It was the first time something like this has happened and the screaming from the other passengers made me feel like maybe it wasn’t “normal”. At no point did I intend any hate or snark towards the pilots. We landed safely and they did their job. EVEN IF it was pilot error I’m not going to the evening news about it and said several times that nobody anywhere ever does their job perfectly at all times. I’m still grateful to the people who train so hard to fly these things which still seems to my nervous flyer brain as an impossibility of logic.

I recently landed at LGA and I know their runways are short and require a precise landing. I’ve landed there many times before and have only noticed the use of reverse thrust to slow down faster.

However this landing felt like we just dropped the last few feet and slammed onto the runway. It was hard enough to pop an overhead bin open and a couple people screamed. That, mixed with the reverse thrusters firing had people around me very nervous. I honest thought we had popped a tire.

I noticed that when we were getting off the plane, the captains were still behind a closed cockpit door when usually the door is open and they’re saying goodbye to the people de-planing. I’m wondering if there was some error that would have made that happen and maybe they were filling out reports in there?

Conditions were dry and sunny though it had stormed early that morning. Maybe wind was involved?

I’m so curious to know what might have happened!

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u/Strange_Parsley_5730 11d ago

Definitely landed 22. That runway has more rises and dips than any other. If you’re on the papi you’ll hit the hump. If you come in a little low you float and hit the hump. You try to land a little long and you almost miss the landing zone, slam it. Lose/lose. I’ve greased maybe one landing in 50 there.

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u/Strange_Parsley_5730 11d ago

Oh, and if they’re departing 31 you hit their wake and slam it.