Close call landing with stuck gear..

**bugjuice** · 22nd September 2005, 16:38

this just shows engineering at it's very best. Textbook landing, against the odds..

LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- A JetBlue airliner with its front landing gear stuck sideways safely landed Wednesday, balancing on its back wheels as it slowed on the runway at Los Angeles International Airport.

The story here and footage here (look for the pic of the plane in the column on the right)

Just thought this was pretty spectacular, and those pilots need a drink!

**TwoSeven** · 22nd September 2005, 16:55

I flicked it on to CNN, but they didnt seem to be interested in it.

**Sniper** · 22nd September 2005, 17:00

Cool, that was skills

**Zed** · 22nd September 2005, 17:11

Yeah well done, bit risky though. I would have thought if the pilot knew it was sideways he could have stayed in the air and someone could maybe climb down and straighten it from the inside...you know, like they do on the movies!

What do I know, front wheel probably isn't accessible from the inside of the plane??

**eliot-ness** · 22nd September 2005, 18:01

Watched it tv. Stopped breathing till the plane came to a standstill. Bloody scary, reckon the pilot should get a medal. The worst ordeal would have to have been for the passengers. the whole incident was being shown on the personal TVs in the passenger cabin.

**Waylander** · 22nd September 2005, 18:04

Just saw it on 3news, damn that's some skill. Smart thinking too. Much props to that pilot.

**WINJA** · 22nd September 2005, 18:06

THAT PILOT WAS FUCKEN GREAT , HE DESERVES A BEER AND 2 WHORES AT THE SAME TIME FOR THAT EFFORT

**N4CR** · 22nd September 2005, 23:34

CNN didn't show it eh.... weird. Mabey it was the whole Boeing being US made plane which has had a few bad crashes lately being showed up by a Airbus made by Europe that was strong enough in the undercarrage to withstand landing with a wheel the wrong way.

Airbus makes planes with composite materials, hence they are generally stronger and more advanced. CNN could be controlled by the US govt, and they don't want to loose money from not having boeings in the sky.

Jeez I'm a great conspiracy theorist

p/t

That was amazing I must say. Landing gear took all the stress without snapping off. I would have thaught the plane might have been hard to handle at low speeds (eg 40knots) with the landing gear like that scraping the ground - Kudos to the pilots. I have seen pics of this happen on a lear jet once... 'scrrrrrrappeeeee' as the gear snapped off and the front of the plane goes for a faceplant.

This reminded me of the emergency stopping test footage of 747's. The footage involved locking up $24,000US of tyres and a couple of hundred thousand of brakes and lower landing gear assembly. This means a crapload of smoke and burning and melting wheel assemblies etc.

**Jantar** · 22nd September 2005, 23:39

Apparently this is the 4th time it has happened to an A320 in the past 12 months.

Air New Zealand operates 11 A320s.

**Dadpole** · 22nd September 2005, 23:54

The 4th incident for the A320. Bet that info was straight to the media from Boeing.

PS Useless information dept.
Someone once calculated that the human heart pumps enough blood during an average lifetime to fill the fuel tanks on 2000 Boeing 747's

Bet you will sleep better knowing that.

**Jantar** · 23rd September 2005, 00:11

Originally Posted by Dadpole

The 4th incident for the A320. Bet that info was straight to the media from Boeing.

No, not just the 4th incident for an A320, but the 4th time in a year that the the nose wheel has failed to retract due to turning 90 degrees, and requiring an emergency landing. Information from NTSB.