NTSB: NY runway cleared of snow 20-25 minutes before Delta accident

Delta Air Lines Flight 1086 is seen after it slid off the runway upon landing at New York's LaGuardia Airport March 5, 2015. The Delta Air Lines jetliner landing during a snowstorm at New York's LaGuardia Airport on Thursday slid off the runway and struck a fence before coming to rest at the edge of Flushing Bay, but there were no serious injuries.

Credit: REUTERS/Mike Segar

Credit: REUTERS/Mike Segar

Delta Air Lines Flight 1086 is seen after it slid off the runway upon landing at New York's LaGuardia Airport March 5, 2015. The Delta Air Lines jetliner landing during a snowstorm at New York's LaGuardia Airport on Thursday slid off the runway and struck a fence before coming to rest at the edge of Flushing Bay, but there were no serious injuries.

In the investigation of a Delta Air Lines plane that skidded off a runway at New York’s LaGuardia Airport on March 5, investigators say the runway had been cleared of snow 20 to 25 minutes before the accident.

The National Transportation Safety Board in its third update on the probe said it has formed an investigative group to look at airport operations, focusing on LaGuardia’s snow-clearing plan and its snow-clearing operations on the day of the accident involving the Boeing MD-88 plane.

Four other planes had landed on the runway after it was cleared, including a different Delta MD-88 flight that landed three minutes prior to the accident.