seacue
25th Sep 2003, 02:56
I appears that a United 737 is stranded on (maybe) the main runway at Washington National DCA.
UAL at DCA 030924 (http://users.erols.com/rcarpen/dca030924.jpg)
A bit more info.
Reuters
Runway at Washington airport blocked for hours
Wednesday September 24, 3:40 pm ET
WASHINGTON, Sept 24 (Reuters) - The main runway at Washington's Reagan National airport was blocked for hours on Wednesday after the front landing gear of a jetliner collapsed after touchdown, stranding the Boeing 737 (NYSE:BA - News) on the tarmac.
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United Airlines (OTC BB:UALAQ.OB - News) Flight 604 with 62 passengers and crew landed safely at 10:50 a.m., but then reported a landing gear problem, the Federal Aviation Administration said.
Aviation officials said the nose gear's two wheels had fallen off the plane. The airline would only say the aircraft had a landing gear problem.
All 57 passengers and five crew members evacuated via emergency stairs and were bused to the terminal. No injuries were reported.
The disabled aircraft was stranded nearly halfway down the airport's primary runway. The FAA said it could take several hours to jack up the plane and tow it, and then the airport would have to determine whether the runway was damaged.
Traffic was shifted to a second shorter runway and only minor delays were reported.
Shore Guy
25th Sep 2003, 08:24
Plane drops tire taking off from O'Hare
By Jon Hilkevitch
Tribune transportation reporter
September 24, 2003, 3:56 PM CDT
A United Airlines jetliner lost a tire today during takeoff from O'Hare International Airport, and its nose gear collapsed during a rough landing in Washington, D.C., the Federal Aviation Administration said.
None of the 57 passengers or 5 crew members was injured, authorities said.
United Flight 604, a Boeing 737 en route to Reagan Washington National Airport, lost one of two tires on its nose-gear assembly while taking off from O'Hare, said Monique Bond, spokeswoman for the Chicago Department of Aviation.
The plane left O'Hare shortly before 8 a.m., and its pilots were unaware of the problem until they touched down at Reagan about two hours later, officials said.
"The first indication to the crew of a problem was after the aircraft landed and they inspected it," said FAA spokesman Jim Peters in New York. "There is no indicator on the aircraft to alert the crew that a nose wheel had come off."
The main landing gear under the belly of the 737 touched down normally, but things got bumpy when the plane's nose made contact with the runway on one tire and the steel wheel of the other, officials said.
Flying debris from the wheel damaged the plane's right engine, Peters said.
The accident shut down the Washington airport's runway for hours while FAA investigators studied the damaged plane. The passengers were kept on the plane for about 45 minutes after landing and then were taken off by a portable staircase and bused to the terminal, according to United spokeswoman Chris Nardella.
O'Hare, meanwhile, was alerted to the mishap, and airfield workers found the tire near the runway where the aircraft had taken off, Bond said. Investigators now are seeking to determine what caused the tire to fall off.:uhoh: