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• Stricken JetBlue flight lands safely
Sept. 21: A JetBlue airliner with its front landing gear stuck sideways safely landed at Los Angeles International Airport
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http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9430871/
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Stricken JetBlue flight lands safely at L.A.
Problem with nose landing gear diverts 140-passenger flight to Los Angeles
MSNBC staff and news service reports
Updated: 9:57 p.m. ET Sept. 21, 2005
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.
The flight, with 140 passengers and six crew members on board, landed on runway 25L at 6:19 p.m. PT after being diverted to Los Angeles for its emergency landing, officials said.
JetBlue Flight 292 left Burbank’s Bob Hope Airport at 3:17 p.m. bound for New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport, said airline spokesman Bryan Baldwin.
The flight was scheduled to arrive at JFK at 11:35 p.m.
“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.
Jim Wells, a spokesman for the Los Angeles Fire Department, said that 110 firefighters were at the scene had they been needed. Wells said hospitals on the ground were ready to receive passengers if there had been a need.
Full load of fuel
The plane circled in the area burning fuel; aviation experts said the Airbus A320 is designed so that it cannot dump fuel. The flight had a full load of fuel for the cross-country flight. The aircraft has a capacity of 46,860 pounds of fuel.
Television images showed the jet circling with the front landing gear turned at a 90-degree angle from its normal position. Those TV images watched by people around the country were also likely watched by passengers on the JetBlue flight; the airline features television sets mounted in the headrests of all its flights, allowing passengers to watch live DirecTV programming in flight.
The National Transportation Safety Board Web site reported that a similar incident with an A320 occurred on an America West flight in February 1999 in Columbus, Ohio. The agency found the cause was a failure of the external o-rings in the nose landing gear steering module. The plane landed safely.
Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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