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Southwest Flight 345 crash lands at La Guardia airport

Mike Gallagher

Jul 22, 2013 - 16:08

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Southwest Flight 345 crash lands at La Guardia airport

The Southwest plane that crash landed at La Guardia airport in New York. Picture: Eric Schultz / Twitter

EIGHT people have been injured after a Southwest jet crashed at La Guardia Airport in New York this moing.

The FAA (the US aviation body) initially said the plane landed safely and no injuries were reported.

Southwest, however, said three flight attendants and five customers were being treated for injuries at the scene.

La Guardia airport has been temporarily closed.

Lisa MacSpadden, of Port Authority told ABC news: "a wheel popped off the aircraft's landing gear after landing."

Details of exactly what happened to flight 345 are being investigated.

Southwest has been praised for their swift response to the incident, keeping customers informed via Twitter and Facebook. The company was one of the first to post on Twitter at 8.17am this moing.

Later the company posted a statement on their website. However, like flight 345 the website was temporarily grounded and readers were unable to view anything but the message below.

The Southwest media site crashed after they posted a statement about Flight 345.

The company did post a statement on Facebook. It read:

UPDATE: Southwest Airlines ‪#‎flight345 landed at New York's LaGuardia at 5:40 PM Easte Monday evening from Nashville. The aircraft is a Boeing 737-700. Eyewitness reports indicate the aircraft's nosegear collapsed upon landing. There were 150 people on board including Customers and Crew. All Customers have been deplaned and transferred to the terminal. Initial reports indicate local responders are caring for five Customers and three flight attendants who have reported injuries at this time. Southwest is cooperating with local authorities, and the NTSB has been notified.

Eric Schultz was one of the first people at the airport to post on twitter He tweeted a close up photo of the crash showing passengers being evacuated using the emergency slides.

Thomas Karren posted this photo showing the plane on the runway without the front wheels.