A Southwest Airlines Landing Was So Hard It Fractured A Flight Attendant's Spine

Simple Flying

By Linnea Ahlgren

Published Aug 8, 2022

The short runway at SNA means crew aim for less "floating" of the aircraft - this time it resulted in a flight attendant being evacuated by paramedics

Photo: Vincenzo Pace I Simple Flying

Most commercial jet landings are incredibly smooth, with pilots often having the space to "float" the plane over the runway and touch down as lightly as possible. However, on shorter runways, the priority is to land the aircraft as quickly as possible. On July 1, 2022, a Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 hit the short runway in Santa Ana, California, with such force that one of the flight attendants on board the plane received a fracture to one of the vertebrae of her spine.

Firm landing leading to fracture

The incident occurred on Southwest flight WN-2029 from Oakland International Airport (OAK) to Santa Ana's John Wayne Orange County Airport (SNA) on July 1. The flight, operated by a Boeing 737-700 registered as N480WN, pushed back from the gate at OAK at 15:51 local time and landed at SNA at 16:57, 13 minutes ahead of schedule.

Immediately upon touching down, the flight attendant in question felt pain in her back and neck and was unable to move, and she had to be evacuated by paramedics. At the hospital, doctors found that she had suffered a compression fracture to her T3 vertebra.

A report of the investigation into the incident was released last week by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). It states that,

"According to the flight crew, they were flying a visual approach to runway 20R at SNA. They were aiming for the touchdown zone due to its short runway and trying to fly the aircraft onto the runway with minimal floating. However, it ended up being a firm landing. Shortly after exiting the runway, the flight crew were informed that the “B” position flight attendant (FA) seated in the aft jump seat had injured her back on landing and required medical assistance."

Photo: Southwest Airlines

Followed all pre-landing procedures

After securing the galley and preparing the cabin for landing, the flight attendant had sat down in her designated jumpseat and secured her seatbelt and assumed the brace position. She relayed to the investigators that she felt the plane hit the runway so hard, she first believed it had crashed. There were 137 passengers and five crew on board the flight. No one else sustained any reported injury.

Meanwhile, the aircraft continued to its gate without further incident. The jet did not sustain any damage or require maintenance. It was back in the air heading to Las Vegas (LAS) a couple of hours later, albeit with an hour delay.

SNA's short runway

SNA has what is considered the shortest runway of any major airport in the US, measuring only 5700 feet (1738 meters). As such, pilots aim to bring the plane down on the ground as quickly as possible with minimal "floating" for a smoother landing, so harder landings are not unheard of. We wish the flight attendant in question a speedy recovery.

Simple Flying has reached out to Southwest for a comment on the incident but was yet to receive a response at the time of publication.