B737-700 flight crew reported a leading edge flap failure during final approach.

Narrative:

ATC radio traffic was congested. We got a late clearance to turn to final from a high and tight position; requiring above normal aggressive aircraft maneuvering to land. During this; we had a system malfunction that caused stick shaker and airspeed low alerts which prompted an immediate go. The late clearance made it very difficult to quickly analyze the system problem. We returned to land several times as we diagnosed the system problem. On one of those approaches we received a clearance to land too late to make a safe approach; requiring a go-around. On our final approach and subsequent landing we notified approach control for a non-standard le transit flap 15 procedure; only to be asked by the same tower controller who had given the late clearance to land about the souls on board and fuel state when we were below 1;000 feet on short final. Very distracting again. Preventative measures: no day is perfect in the tower or in the air. Late clearances to land from high tight positions do happen in the real world periodically and are not ideal. It just happened to occur during a serious system malfunction. Not really much to say about it really; but the later general aviation around caused very late clearance to land by other tower controller and subsequent querying us below a 1;000 feet on final regarding fuel and passengers was excessive. These errors need to be reviewed with that tower controller.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: B737-700 flight crew reported a leading edge flap failure during final approach.

Narrative: ATC radio traffic was congested. We got a late clearance to turn to final from a high and tight position; requiring above normal aggressive aircraft maneuvering to land. During this; we had a system malfunction that caused stick shaker and airspeed low alerts which prompted an immediate go. The late clearance made it very difficult to quickly analyze the system problem. We returned to land several times as we diagnosed the system problem. On one of those approaches we received a clearance to land too late to make a safe approach; requiring a go-around. On our final approach and subsequent landing we notified Approach Control for a non-standard LE Transit Flap 15 procedure; only to be asked by the same Tower Controller who had given the late clearance to land about the souls on board and fuel state when we were below 1;000 feet on short final. Very distracting again. Preventative measures: No day is perfect in the Tower or in the air. Late clearances to land from high tight positions do happen in the real world periodically and are not ideal. It just happened to occur during a serious system malfunction. Not really much to say about it really; but the later general aviation around caused very late clearance to land by other Tower Controller and subsequent querying us below a 1;000 feet on final regarding fuel and Passengers was excessive. These errors need to be reviewed with that Tower Controller.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.

Attributes
ACN	1559355
Time
Date	201807
Local Time Of Day	1801-2400
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.Airport
State Reference	US
Environment
Flight Conditions	Mixed
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	B737-700
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Initial Approach
Flight Plan	IFR
Component
Aircraft Component	Flap/Slat Indication
Person 1
Function	Captain Pilot Flying
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 250 Flight Crew Type 15000
Person 2
Function	First Officer Pilot Not Flying
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 580
Events
Anomaly	ATC Issue All Types Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe Deviation - Speed All Types Inflight Event / Encounter Unstabilized Approach