Southwest flight SWA147 from Nashville to LaGuardia suddenly deviated to the right during two landing attempts.
On Saturday, March 23 2024, Southwest flight SWA147 was supposed to land at LaGuardia but was forced to perform two go arounds.
UPDATE The FAA is finally investigating the incident as the Southwest Boeing 737 flew as low as 300 ft over LaGuardia tower which is 233 ft tall.
When the flight SWA147 was on final approach to runway 04, the pilots were forced to go round at 11:46 local time. The crew reported a too high speed due to the tailwind.
Several flights reported wind shears on approach to LaGuardia. METAR data at the time reported 10 kt wind speed from North-West and only 1 mile visibility due to rain. A jetBlue flight (698) performed a go around reporting wind shear.
On its second approach, at 12:01 local time, the Southwest Boeing 737-800 (registration N8554X) was ordered by the tower to go around and to climb to 2,000 ft, heading 060°.
The controller confirmed the aircraft was not aligned “on”at all” to the approach path, it was “East of the final”.
The pilots finally decided to divert to Baltimore where flight SWA147 safely landed 40 minutes later.
Wind shear is caused by a change in wind speed and/or direction resulting in a change in headwind or tailwind that can displace an aircraft abruptly from its intended flight path, requiring substantial control action to be taken.