Alaska Airlines Aircraft Damaged After Hard Landing in Stormy Weather

No one was injured when an Alaska Airlines flight made a rough landing at John Wayne Airport in Santa Ana/Orange County, CA (KSNA) at 23:15 local time in the midst of the remnants of Hurricane Hilary. The 14-year-old Boeing 737-800, registered as N516AS, was operating flight AS1288 from Seattle with 106 passengers and six crew members.

A YouTube video shot by a passenger on board shows the moment the plane made its hard landing on KSNA's Runway 20R, which caused a collapse of the left main landing gear. The landing resulted in damage to the aircraft's left engine cowling and left wing at the root.

According to the National Weather Service, the weather at the time of the incident was reportedly overcast and rainy with winds gusting to 30mph. Santa Ana has an unusually short runway for an airport that services commercial flights at just 5700 feet long, which means pilots have to use heavy braking when landing. In comparison, the shortest runway at Los Angeles International Airport is just under 9000 feet in length. A combination of the short runway and stormy weather likely contributed to the rough landing.

Several airlines, including Southwest, canceled flights into and out of Southern California airports — from San Diego to Burbank — in preparation for the impending weather while other airlines, including Alaska and Spirit, did not.