A Southwest Airlines plane's nose gear collapsed upon its arrival at New York's LaGuardia Airport on Monday night, the Associated Press reported.
"When we got ready to land, we nosedived," said a passenger, Sgt. 1st Class Anniebell Hanna of the South Carolina National Guard.
Of the 150 on people on board, five passengers while 3 crew members sustained injured. All passengers were transferred from the plane to the terminal after the incident, news reports said.
"The emergency chutes deployed, and first responders guided the passengers off and away from the aircraft," WNYW reported.
The nose of the plane was "completely down on the ground," a passenger on another flight who saw the incident take place. "It's something that I've never seen before. It's bizarre."
Emergency crews were seen spraying foam toward the front end of the plane on the tarmac.
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey soon temporarily closed LaGuardia with one of its runways later reopening. By Tuesday, the Port Authority believed everything would be reopened.
The landing gear collapse came 16 days after Asiana Flight 214 crash-landed at San Francisco's airport, which killed two Chinese teenagers. A third was killed when a fire truck ran over her while responding to the crash, authorities said. Dozens of people were injured in that landing, which took off from South Korea.
