What happened
During the landing phase on runway 13 at LaGuard andia Airport (LGA) in New York, an MD-88 operating as a scheduled passenger flight from Atlanta experienced a runway excursion. As the aircraft touched down, it drifted toward the left side of the runway, eventually striking the airport's perimeter fence. The aircraft finally came to a stop with its nose resting against an embankment adjacent to Flushing Bay. The accident resulted in 29 minor injuries among the passengers, while the remaining 98 passengers, the two pilots, and the three flight attendants escaped without injury. The aircraft sustained substantial damage.
Prior to the landing, the flight crew had been monitoring the available runway distance and had requested braking action reports. However, due to ongoing snow removal operations, no reports were available at the time of their request. Upon approaching the runway in instrument meteorological conditions, the crew observed that the surface was covered in snow, which differed from the expectations set by previous aircraft reports.
Findings
Investigation into the event revealed that the pilot in command applied an aggressive reverse thrust setting immediately after touchdown. While the target engine pressure ratio (EPR) for contaminated runways was 1.3, the left engine reached 2.07 and the right engine reached 1.91. This excessive reverse thrust caused rudder blanking, a phenomenon in MD-80 series aircraft where high reverse thrust disrupts airflow over the rudder. This disruption led to a loss of aerodynamic directional control. The pilot's focus was further divided by the need to manage the aircraft's leftward slide and verify spoiler deployment, which prevented effective monitoring of the engine power settings.