No wheels touchdown AA at JFK
 

hearing reports of an AA bird with 120 pax making an emergency landing at JFK with no nose wheel. Was flying from Dallas to LGA apparently

Scary Landing At JFK / Malfunction reroutes jet bound for Newark

By Joshua Robin. STAFF WRITER
3 September 2003
Copyright 2003, Newsday. All Rights Reserved.

An American Airlines plane was forced to make an emergency landing at Kennedy Airport yesterday after its front landing gear would not open entirely, airline officials said.

Flight 1048, bound for Newark from Dallas, was rerouted to Kennedy, where it landed at 11:36 a.m. using its rear gear and the underside of the plane's nose to stop.

There were no injuries reported and the 128 passengers and five crew members departed the rear of the MD-80 using a staircase. The cause of the malfunction had not been determined yesterday, an airline spokesman said.

One passenger, Betty Micharski, 69, of Trenton, N.J., who lost her brother in a 1993 airplane crash, said passengers and crew members were clearly frightened as the plane descended into New York without its full landing gear.

"The guy alongside of me, he was a big guy, and he was shaking and shaking and shaking," said Micharski, who was returning from Los Angeles. "I was thinking, my will is not in order."

The pilot first reported problems to the tower about 45 minutes before the flight's 10:47 a.m. scheduled arrival in Newark, when an indicator light showed the landing gear was malfunctioning, passengers and officials said.

The plane circled the airport tower, where officials there confirmed the gear hadn't fully extended.

American Airlines spokesman Todd Burke said the pilot elected to land at Kennedy because it has longer runways than Newark.

Passenger Lisa Larson of Dallas called the mood inside the plane "very controlled."

"God, the crew did an amazing job," she said. "They kept us informed, they trained everyone."

Passengers were asked to assume an emergency landing position and firefighters spraying foam met the plane as it landed. After the plane landed, passengers burst into applause.

"It appears from our initial report that this was a textbook landing considering the circumstances," Burke said.

The aircraft was parked near a grassy part of the runway, where it remained hours after the landing, its nose clearly dipped. Passengers were loaded into two chartered buses, bound for Newark.

Micharski, whose brother Donald Robbins of Williamstown, N.J., died in a 1993 crash of an FAA plane in Front Royal, Va., said she thought of him yesterday, but vowed the incident wouldn't deter her from flying in two weeks. She's bound for Germany, in time for Oktoberfest.

Original destination was EWR. Emergency seems to have been well-handled by all. JFK said to have had only minutes notification of incoming emergency.

Pictures here.



Landing_24R

Good pictures. Did the foam go down before the landing?

http://www.aviationpolicy.org/aa_jfk.jpg

So THAT'S why they call it an airstair! :D

I note with more than a little delight that the apparent distance between the bottom step and the tarmac would not cause one to reconsider a decision to use this route to escape a burning aircraft (although clearly not the case here).


Dave

Edited to mention that the photo is (c) Karl Jacobson, found at http://www.jetphotos.net/showphotos....,143662,143663 and that I don't claim any right to it. :ok:

So that's why they put the steps at the back!

"big guy shaking & shaking" and " crew clearly frightened"

disappointing to hear that this well handled situation is so badly reported! how about,......................

"the AA crew did an exceptional job in dealing with a mechanical failure they were trained for. all passengers unharmed."

end of story!!!

i dont give a toss what some scaremongering reporter gleamed from mrs betty mickowski.........she is home, with her family........how about giving credit, where credit is due!

will done to the entire crew

Sounds like good reporting to me jungly. No reports of widespread panic, more like general praise, and just one poor senior citizen who - having lost her brother to an aircrash - felt frightened and will have described the situation as she saw it personally.

I noticed in the news story that "problems were reported 45 minutes prior to arrival in Newark" What would the crew have noticed prior to the extension of the landing gear?. I am assuming of course that the gear was not selected down 45 minutes prior to TD. Any thoughts or is this just a bit of mis information?

This one caused a few sphincters to pucker... Can't believe it was nearly nine years ago!!

http://www.airliners.net/open.file/021003/M/

An interesting thread, this...I have read a number of posts on various pprune forums recently concerning the AA MD80 fleet. I myself took a flight on one (N424AA I believe) in August (LGA/TPA), and I have to say that it was without doubt the worst flying experience I have encountered in 25 years of flying on commercial a/c.
Question - are the AA MD80's simply "flying junk", or are these incidents down to minimal maintenance schedules coupled with the need to keep the things flying in order to generate the much- needed revenue for the Company? I haven't seen or heard of any similar number of complaints about other a/c types in the AA domestic fleet. My next family trip to the States will be planned with avoidance of MD80s in mind - I have got a wife and two kids to think of!

Connex, American do have about 350 of the things in service, quite possibly the largest fleet of any single aircraft at any airline anywhere. So, with that in mind I guess statistically speaking a few incidents are going to crop up at times.

MD 80's and gear
 

Connex, Airtours (now know as MyTravel) had an MD83 that collapsed its main gear at EGCC some time ago - fatigue was the issue I think, not maintainence. I would suggested the AA planes are well cared for beasties compared to other ops.

junglyhttp://www.roull.co.uk/FT/blow.gif - There's another bandwagon along in a minute, you can jump on that one too. :{

Would your arse not be flapping a little?

Did the jorno twist this? Maybe she acually said everyone was panicing and screaming? :suspect:

Sounds like praise to me.

Again no sign of any jorno hype.

Need I say more?

Says it all.

To me this was an un-hyped accurate piece of reporting. Car to say what you saw wrong in the report? Perhaps you think any incident involving aviation should be censored.:\

Hear hear!

There are quite a few PPL journo's around these forums you know;-)

I'll not go into the preliminary report within the company - it's up to the NTSB and AA to release details all in good time; suffice to say the crew did an excellent job all round - you'll be impressed when you read about it in due course. How to handle a situation in an orderly manner, leaving no stone unturned flt dk and cabin. Use all available resources, whilst minding the fuel, flying, etc (and the wx was cr@p at the time).

Well done, Lads and Lasses.

In my day, that would have gotten a Green Endorsement in the mob... :ok:

I was wondering the same thing as KATLPAX how did the crew realize they where having gear trouble 45 minutes from their destination?

My guess is that with maybe a short taxi time and a bit of tailwind
it wouldn't be unusual to arrive 30-45 minutes earlier than the
scheduled arrival time of 1047am.
The flight is scheduled for 3hrs 13 min blocktime, flight plan distance is 1266 nautical miles.

KATLPAX, this story says
"During the plane's approach to Newark, the pilot noticed the jet's nose wheel landing gear was not locking into place, American Airlines spokesman Todd Burke said."

http://www.nydailynews.com/front/sto...p-103182c.html

Perhaps it was 45 minutes before they landed at Kennedy???

BTW, it says that pax Micharski's brother was a pilot, so perhaps you could cut her some slack.