Southwest Fires Pilots for Burbank Crash Landing

B U R B A N K, Calif., Aug. 3 -- Southwest Airlines fired the pilot andco-pilot of a 737 jetliner that skidded off a runway and onto astreet during a botched landing at Burbank Airport in March.

Company officials declined to discuss the reason for thedismissals.

“All I can do is verify that the pilots have been terminated,”Southwest Airlines spokeswoman Linda Rutherford said Wednesday.“We can’t give any other details because the NationalTransportation Safety Board investigation is still pending.”

Off the Runway and On the Street

The Boeing 737-300, arriving from Las Vegas, barreled off therunway onto a city street March 5, striking a car, just missing agas station and slightly injuring 15 of the 142 people on board.The most seriously injured was the pilot, who suffered scalp cuts.

The NTSB reviewed flight recordings, radar data and interviewswith air traffic controllers from the accident.

Investigators said the plane made its final descent intoBurbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport at such a steep angle that acockpit warning system went off, and it was going 208 mph attouchdown when it should have been going around 161 mph.

Southwest has declined to identify either pilot. The SouthwestAirlines Pilots Association filed a grievance after the firings,which were effective July 17.

Safety board officials said the captain, a 12-year Southwestveteran, was at the Boeing 737’s controls during the landing. Theco-pilot was hired by Southwest in 1996.

Southwest Airlines, the nation’s seventh-largest air carrier,has not had a fatality in its 30-year history.