Have the news on? An airliner over LAX is having trouble

[TwoRails]

Got the news on and they just said that an airliner is dumping fuel to possibly crash land at the LAX airport due to landing gear problems. Caught only brief info on it, but the plane is circling and will be landing in about 10 minutes they said...

I hope they land OK....

[Stryker]

My goodness... another airbus? (A-320)

I just turned it on when I read your message TR. After getting a first-hand view of the A-340 that went down at Pearson in Toronto, this stuff scares the you-know-what out of me.

I can't imagine how the individuals and crew on the plane are feeling. I hope everything goes smoothly.

[blue60007]

Yep, just heard it a while ago- not sure what the latest is - CNN keeps talking about Rita...

[Stryker]

Looks like the front landing gear is jammed. They will have to land on the rear gear and put the nose down gently. Scary stuff.


Edit: my mistake... they just said it's an A-310, not an A-320 as I said in my previous post.

[kram 2.0]

Good God - I really hope for a safe landing. Few minutes remaining.

kram

[blue60007]

UPDATE!! It just landed successfully!!!! :)

[kram 2.0]

They are doing inspections right now - hopefully, they can evacuate safely.

kram

[rspassey]

A litle fire on the front wheel, but prefect landing besides that, and the fire didnt cause anything else to go wrong. Phew.

[TwoRails]

YaaHoo!! Yes, what a perfect landing!! Right on the white center line! Everything seems safe and they didn't have to do an "emergency" evacuation: they are pulling up ramps now to get all those scared folks off. (I know my heart would be pounding like crazy)

[Hi Ho]

I was watching that on the local news. I'm glad it turned out to be OK.

[bailey]

and to think that all the passengers were able to watch it on cnn all the time during the epsode.
cnn just announced that.

[kram 2.0]

and to think that all the passengers were able to watch it on cnn all the time during the epsode.
cnn just announced that.
For the most part, I'm sure they were - but during the landing, as usual, the television is turned off.

kram

[RJ]

Saw it on the news. It was an A320 (btw, they can't dump fuel). . good that it could be landed safely.

RJ

[Stryker]

... It was an A320 ...
Thought so.
I guess I should have stuck with my original instinct in my first post. ;)
That's what I get for listening to a reporter. :D

I captured the footage with my capture card to have a look at it after. Although it's a very scary situation, it's incredible that the pilot kept it as straight as he did. I've watched it a couple of times in awe of the precision that it takes to land an airliner, never mind an airliner with malfunctioning landing gear!

The ATC tower was commenting that the pilot was calm and collected the entire time. Yes I know they are trained for these situations, but actually experiencing one is a different story I'm sure. Just incredible!

[LA22]

They were flying around above the airport for a while until almost all the gas was gone, then they made the landing.

[Jaggannath]

It was an A320 (btw, they can't dump fuel)
RJ
That's kinda ridiculous if you ask me...

[David M]

I am wondering why they would design this non-feature (inability to dump fuel) into a commercial aircraft. It seems dangerous not be able to reduce the size of a possible fire upon a less than ideal landing situation. I believe the 747 must be below a certain weight to land safely and therefore has the ability to dump fuel.

I hope they got "I survived my Airbus flight" T-shirts. :D

[Panama Red]

This incident gives new meaning to "technology terror". Because they could not dump the fuel, they were force to circle for nearly 3 hours to burn the fuel off. During that time the passengers were watching the news channels on an in-flight Direct TV service. How would you like to be helplessly sitting for 3 hours listening to the morbidity of the news folks as they projected the hypothetical landing/crashing scenarios? Yikes!!

[zelira]

it's incredible that the pilot kept it as straight as he did.

Balls of steel. :eek:

Glad there weren't anyone hurt.

[RJ]

I am wondering why they would design this non-feature (inability to dump fuel) into a commercial aircraft. It seems dangerous not be able to reduce the size of a possible fire upon a less than ideal landing situation. I believe the 747 must be below a certain weight to land safely and therefore has the ability to dump fuel.

On smaller aircraft, such as the 737 or A320 family, the max. T/O weight and the max. landing weight don't differ much, it should be able to land that aircraft even with max. T/O weight (at least once, for emergency. . not regularly), therefore they aren't equipped with a fuel jettison mechanism.

RJ

[Jaggannath]

Ah OK thanks RJ, didn't realise that. I still think its a bit ridiculous though, it leaves the pilot with very few options

[Floppyman]

http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/09/22/airliner.emergency.ap/index.html

Wow......hats off to the pilots for safe landing.

[pc master]

Makes a change from all the boeing crashes recently. Airbus must make safer planes or care more about maintainance procedures the boeing.

[Jaggannath]

Or maybe there's just more Boeings...
Also, most of the planes that crash are run by penny-pinching, low cost companies. The inference between Boeing and Airbus maintenance has more to do with the companies, and less to do with the model of aircraft

[kstatefan40]

I watched the landing, and I have to say, hats off to the pilots and crew of that craft. My dad is a flight instructor, so I've been around aircraft all my life. That landing was *perfect*.

[TwoRails]

Don't want to make this an AMD / Intel war... err, I mean, a Boeing / Airbus war, but the news said that the landing gear messing up like that is not an isolated incident. It has happened on other occasions, but Airbus doesn't feel it happens enough to warrent any action on their part.

Just think it it wasn't such a perfect landing... and folks did get hurt or worse. Imagine the trouble Airbus would be in, having prior knowledge of the problem.

[kram 2.0]

I watched the landing, and I have to say, hats off to the pilots and crew of that craft. My dad is a flight instructor, so I've been around aircraft all my life. That landing was *perfect*.
For being a fairly new airline company, the flight staff was said to be very professional and calm. While I will still continue to fly AA (and their almost-all-Boeing fleet), I appluad the staff as well.

kram

[HAL9000]

To be honest with ya.... I had no doubts the plane would come down safely.... with the wheel sideways like that... worst case scenario would be the nose wheel collapses under the sudden strain and the plane skids to a stop on its nose.... I would be more worried if that nose wheel was say steering off 30-40 degrees to one side instead of nearly 90 degrees... there would be a major tendancy for the plane to want to veer off the runway and create a real mess.

[Jaggannath]

Just think it it wasn't such a perfect landing... and folks did get hurt or worse. Imagine the trouble Airbus would be in, having prior knowledge of the problem.

Airbus would just blame the pilots or the maintenance staff, like they always do

[RJ]

Well, they are right about that. Airbus or Boeing can't be blamed for poor maintenance of the airlines. Their planes are safe.

RJ