Post-PostModern Moment on Jet Blue #292

[Video of Landing] Jet Blue flight #292, a transcontinental flight from Burbank Airport to JFK in New York, with a crippled front landing gear, landed safely at Los Angeles International Airport today. Just after take-off from the Southern California airport around 3:15 PM PDT, the pilot reported an emergency after being alerted by a warning light that there was a problem with the front landing gear. The pilot, unable to see himself what was wrong under the plane, was first told by a helicopter pilot from a local television station what the situation was with the landing gear. This was followed-up by a low altitude fly-by of the ground-control tower at near-by Long Beach airport.

The airliner, an Airbus 320, carried 139 passengers and 6 crew; a pilot, co-pilot and 4 flight attendants. It is unclear what caused the problem with the front nose gear but was stuck sideways, perpendicular to the front of the plane. The Airbus 32o lacking the ability to dump fuel like other airliners, flew lazy loops just off the coast of Southern California trying to burn off fuel. To burn this fuel off fuel as quickly as possible the pilot flew at a relatively low altitude (about 6,000 feet) with flaps and landing gear down; a high-drag scenario while running the engines at a high thrust rate.

Officials on the ground decided to have the plane land at Los Angeles International (LAX) due to the large amount of emergency personnel and resources available and the very long runway (about 12,000 feet) available at the extreme south side of the airport. The pilot brought the plane into land around 6:15 PM PDT. As the pilot brought the plane down, he kept the plane tilted back on the rear landing gear as long as possible before letting the crippled front-wheel come down. As the front wheel came down, sparks and brief flames trailed the front wheels as the tires, being pushed sideways down the runway, burned off.  Though, as the plane finally ground to a stop, no flames were present, just fleeting whift of  smoke from the smoldering rubber of the front tires. The pilot did a remarkable job and used 95% of the long LAX runway, coming to rest not more than 1,000 feet from the end. There were many fire and emergency resources on the ground waiting for the plane but none were needed save the mobile truck-mounted stairway that the passengers used to leave the plane when it stopped (Michael Bluth would be so proud!).

Jet Blue, a relatively new airline is primarily known for 2 things: leather seats and personal satellite television for each passenger. Unbelievably, the passengers became aware of the  seriousness of the situation by watching coverage of their own ordeal on their personal satellite televisions mounted in the seatbacks. (Ironic, yes, though angryGWN reminds us, Rick Moranis did first suggest it in Spaceballs: The Movie). The pilot initially told the passengers that there was a problem with the landing gear not retracting into the plane. This information was not that disturbing but as passengers saw their own story being reported as a national event on MSNBC, panic quickly ensued. At this point, the pilot told them what was happening and tried to reassure the passengers as much as possible.

Alexander Jacobs, an editor at the New York Observer and six months pregnant passenger on the plane, related the following details of the ordeal to CNN's Aaron Brown and later, to Anderson Cooper. [See Video of Interview] She said that it was a bit unnerving to see their own ordeal competing with the  coverage of the impending Category 5 hurricane in Texas. Mrs. Jacobs said "We couldn't believe the irony that we might be watching our own demise on television. It just seemed a bit post-Postmodern, if you will." The satellite television remained available to the passengers until about 10 minutes before landing. She said that the pilot was calm and informative and that the flight attendants were very professional; none of them looked alarmed or scared. The mood in the cabin was varied, some were joking, some quietly concerned, some abjectly weeping.

In a darkly comedic moment as they approached the airport just before landing, as if nothing out of the ordinary was happening, the pilots announced "Flight attendants, please prepare for landing." To this, many in the plane quietly laughed, relieving the pressure and anxiety just a bit before landing. The landing was relatively smooth and straight as an arrow; the centerline of the runway obscured by the sparks and brief flame was revealed almost directly below the damaged front landing gear. As the aircraft came finally came to a stop, the passengers erupted in euphoria; applause, cheering and congratulations filling the cabin. Pilot Scott Burke, after his first landing at Los Angeles International (Jet Blue does not fly in/out of LAX, only Burbank and Long Beach in SoCal) was reported to have told Los Angeles Mayor Villarigosa, who met the passengers and crew as they disembarked the airplane said tongue-in-cheek, that after landing that he was upset that he was 6 inches off the centerline of the runway. Great job Jet Blue.

My prediction is that this incident will not adversely affect the airline, in fact, but that it will actually increase ticket sale for the airline. By most accounts, it seems like the faulty front landing gear was a fluke and the professionalism by the crew and the fantastic flying and landing by the pilot increases confidence in the airline, not diminishes it. We'll see.

Technorati Tags: mccannta, Jet Blue, flight 292, emergency landing, Anderson Cooper, Aaron Brown, Alexandra Jacobs, Scott Burke.

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