anyone watching CNN ? A Jet Blue flight over LAX has a landing gear issue and is about to attempt a emergency landing live on the tube .....

 

Personally I am watching Fox and there has been no mention that this landing gear problem is President Bush’s fault…

Fair and balanced…

 

Yup im watching it here on Fox news...some crazy stuff

 

SAFE AND SOUND! I just watched the landing. Thank god the pilot knew what he was doing.

 

Amazing landing by the pilot . . .

The flight took off out of Burbank (an LA suburb) and was headed to JFK.

The front gear never got up and in addition was torqued 90 degrees



So they brought the plane back and circled for about three hours to burn off fuel (the Airbus A320 is unable to dump fuel).

Then they landed at LAX (12000 foot runway and most emergency equipment).

The ABC station here (KABC) has HD on their helicopter so we got to what the approach and landing in HD (because dramatic landings are just THAT much more dramatic in High Def!).

It was quite something. The pilot brought it down slow and easy, the front gear did not collapse but did burn off the tires and he kept it straight and that front gear post never left the center of the runway (although it sure did throw some flames and sparks).

Took it just shy of the end of the runway (it was close!) and then then off-loaded the passengers via stairs (not the emergency chutes) as if nothing happened.

The pilot (and the crew) should all get raises for that one.

Really something to see.

 

I wonder if they had all the passengers move to the back of the plane in order to shift weight behind the main landing gears and keep weight off the nose?

 

There were two NBC employees that happened to be on the plane that MSNBC interviewed via cell phone while they were still in buses on the tarmac . . .

yes, they did that, as well as move most of the carry-on luggage to the back, however, there were only five empty seats so there wasn't a lot they could do.

What I found interesting is that jetBlue has DirecTV on their flights and each seat had a tv. They kept the signal on until about ten minutes before landing, so the passengers were able to watch their story unfold right there on CNN and MSNBC.

The plane did a low level pass over the runway at Long Beach (where jet blue has maintenance facilities) shortly after they realized they had a problem and the passengers were able to watch and see the gear 90 degrees out of whack, right then and there . . . not to mention that they could also watch the news for a few hours and see themselves circling over the ocean and hear all the stupid remarks the news anchors were making wondering how bad the crash landing might be . . . that had to be rather disconcerting.

 

Should have just flown to their destination isntead of wasting gas.

 

I think the reason they didn't consider that is the landing gear wouldn't go up. Can't fly at altitude very well with the gear down.

 

It's not that they can't fly at altitude with the gear down, it's that the aircraft has a maximum speed with the gear down, which is nowhere near what they like to cruise at. It's maybe close to 200 knots, and they probably cruise in the upper 400's. Big difference

 

True, but would they have made the destination on the same load of fuel? I'm no aerodynamic engineer, but I think that one gear down would make a considerable difference in fuel consumption at 300 mph.

I didn't read where they were headed, but maybe there were no 12000' runways between LAX and there. And it sounded like they used most of it.

I totally agree though, waste of gas; but it was a good call.

 

Unfortunately, this is not the first time these planes have had to land like that.

http://apnews.excite.com/article/200...D8CPIOO86.html