By JoAnn Merrigan (
[email protected])
Published: February 28, 2009
A Delta Connection Flight operated by ASA rolled off the runway after landing at the Savannah International Airport late Saturday afternoon, according to a spokesperson from ASA. Kate Modolo says the plane did not overshoot the runway as some witnesses had reported. “It’s important to make clear the plane landed on the runway and was in the process of de-accelerating,“ she tells me. “However, there was still enough speed that it kept going and rolled off the runway.“
Modolo says she doesn’t know how far the plane rolled or the reasons for the mishap. She says Flight 4961 was coming from Atlanta to Savannah and landed about 4:51 p.m. Saturday. She says 56 passengers along with two pilots and two flight attendants were on board the aircraft. She says it’s a CRJ 700 aircraft which is a 70 seater.
Modolo says no one was hurt and no damage was sustained to the aircraft. She does say emergency vehicles from the airport came to assist the plane as a precaution. The plane was expected to return to Atlanta and Modolo says that flight was cancelled and passengers were being accommodated with other flights. “We’re working with those passengers to meet their needs,“ she says.
“We’ve dispatched our maintenance team to Savannah to inspect the aircraft,“ says Modolo. “And there will be an internal investigation into the incident to determine the cause.“
Modolo says they won’t speculate about why the incident might have occurred but says weather conditions might have played a part. “we’ll be looking at the weather, apparently there was significant rainfall at the time,“ she says.
Modolo says the fact that there is no apparent damage to the aircraft indicates that the plane was apparently traveling at a slow enough speed to have “rolled” past the runway.
ASA (Atlanta Southeast Airliens ) again is the operator of the Delta connection flight.