Jet makes emergency landing

[Harry Tuttle]

Jet makes emergency landing
Flames shot off the front landing gear

LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- A JetBlue airliner with its front landing gear stuck sideways safely landed Wednesday, balancing on its back wheels as it slowed on the runway at Los Angeles International Airport.

Flames shot off the front landing gear as the plane ground to a halt with firefighters at the ready.

The aircraft with landing gear problems had circled the Los Angeles area for more than two hours as the pilots dumped fuel over the ocean and officials tried to determine how to make an emergency landing.

The pilots discovered the plane's front wheels were turned sideways and stuck as they tried to retract the gear shortly after takeoff.

The back landing gear was also down as the plane circled, but it appeared to be in the correct position. Officials planned to try to land the aircraft, relying on the back wheels, at Los Angeles International Airport, which has longer runways than surrounding airports and more emergency equipment.

JetBlue Flight 292 left Burbank's Bob Hope Airport at 3:17 p.m. with 139 passengers headed for New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport, said airline spokesman Bryan Baldwin.

Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Donn Walker said the Airbus A320 was dumping fuel over the Pacific to lighten the plane for an emergency landing.

"After leaving Burbank, pilots reported a landing gear indication light on, meaning there may be a problem or issue with the landing gear," Baldwin said. He said the crew decided to head for a nearby airport to attempt to land.

The plane first circled the Long Beach Airport, about 30 miles south of Burbank, then was cleared to land at Los Angeles, said LAX spokeswoman Nancy Castles.

JetBlue is based in Forest Hills, New York.

Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

THEY ****ING MADE IT! I can't believe there wasn't a thread on this. Beautiful landing, the pilot managed to stay off the front landing gear till they were goping about 40mph. The landing gear was twisted 90 degrees and the the damn gear managed to stay upright for the landing. I watched it in real time. Congrats to the pilots! They saved all those lives.

[Harry Tuttle]

http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/09/21/airliner.emergency.ap/index.html

[Guynemer]

Yeah, I saw it on Larry King. That pilot deserves a big ****ing medal and several rounds of fellatio with supermodels.

[Harry Tuttle]

I mean, cmon, the landing gear was twisted, the guy landed the plane right on the stripes. A good 20 seconds passed before he dropped the front gear. ****, that was awesome.

[Tuberski]

It was pretty damn amazing that's for sure. He made it look like an ordinary landing.



ACK!

[Gatekeeper]

I bet there was alot of screaming and jumping up and down for joy on that plane once it came to a stop and folks realized thing's were going to be OK.

I, too, saw it in real time and, hey, that pilot deserves a BIG, FAT RAISE.

Gatekeeper

[DRoseDARs]

We watched it live on CNN at the club this afternoon. Everybody stopped what they were doing once the runway appeared below the plane. Dead silence in a 12,000sqft facility filled with people and gym equipment is kinda eerie. Some muffled gasps when the flames erupted from the front landing gear and a audible collective sigh of relief when it came to a stop. Most went right back to what they were doing a few seconds later after the plane was motionless.

The pilot and co-pilot deserve medals for their handling of the plane, preferably NOT awarded or given by anyone in the Bush Administration as they only give out medals to incompetent failures.

[Tingkai]

What's the big deal?

The pilot landed the plane as he normally would, except that he kept the nose up a bit longer. There's nothing technically challenging in that. There was no great skill involved.

Worst that could have happened is the nose gear collapses, but at the speed he would be going, the plane would have simply skidded to a halt.

[DRoseDARs]

It wasn't just the landing. They kept their cool the whole time. Presumably they kept the passengers calm as well throughout the ordeal.

[Tingkai]

I'd be surprised if the pilots didn't keep their cool. In the scale of things that can go wrong, this is pretty low on the totem pole. If it had been one of the main landing gears that would have required far more skill to land the plane. They were probably more concerned about checking for other possible malfunctions.

[DRoseDARs]

Bah. No medal for you.

[pchang]

Such a landing is much more difficult than a normal landing. However, it is well within the abilities of almost every passenger jet pilot. Almost all of them have military experience and have had to perform (for real and in simulations) more difficult tasks.