10 People Are Injured in Plane Landing at La Guardia Matt J. Friedman and Frank Ferramosca, via Reuters Passengers exiting a Southwest Airlines plane at La Guardia Airport on Monday after the front landing gear collapsed upon arrival from Nashville. Six passengers were taken to a hospital. The front landing gear of a Boeing 737 operated by Southwest Airlines collapsed upon landing at La Guardia Airport on Monday evening, thrusting the plane's nose into the tarmac and sending out a stream of sparks as the plane skidded to a stop, officials and witnesses said. At least 10 people were injured, according to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the airport; six of those were taken to Elmhurst Hospital Center. The extent of their injuries was not immediately known, though it appeared that none were serious. "It sounded as if you hit a brick wall," said Frank Ferramosca, 22, of Manhattan, one of 150 people on the flight. He said there was a "huge bang, and no one really knew what happened." People screamed. Cellphones and handbags flew through the air. And oxygen masks dropped. Then, after the plane came to a stop, "there was a very eerie silence," Mr. Ferramosca said. The airport was closed for about 80 minutes, and one of its two main runways reopened at 7:06 p.m. The authorities did not immediately indicate the cause of the accident. "The plane's nose gear collapsed as the aircraft landed on Runway 4 at 5:45 p.m.," Kathleen Bergen, a spokeswoman for the Federal Aviation Administration, wrote in an e-mail. Photos of the plane, Flight 345 from Nashville, showed its nose resting on the tarmac surrounded by emergency vehicles. The plane's rear landing gear appeared to have deployed normally. Witnesses said the landing seemed normal until the front landing gear hit the runway. "I saw a tire fly off and go to the left and the nose hit flat on the ground, and sparks went flying everywhere," said Jeff Crabiel, 30, a hotel worker from Nashville who was aboard a Delta Air Lines flight that was on the runway. Airport officials said emergency personnel were not aware of any problems before the plane landed. "It didn't appear that anyone was waiting for this plane to arrive like that," said Bobby Abtahi, 31, an lawyer from Dallas who saw the landing from inside the terminal. After the plane came to a stop, Mr. Abtahi said, emergency vehicles emerged from nearby garages and raced to the scene. By then, he said, the plane's inflatable slides had deployed, and passengers were rushing out. Officials said the airport would not be fully operational until at least Tuesday morning.