Posted on 09/21/2005 4:21:43 PM PDT by kingu
A Jet Blue aircraft just did a low altitude flyby of Long Beach airport after reporting some concern with their forward gear. The television helicopter caught an image of it - the gear is turned sideways and tilted.
Aircraft is heading out towards the ocean to drop fuel, will turn around, and attempt a 'soft field' landing, keeping the nose up as long as possible.
I think I read somewhere that they were.
My whole family praying. Let's all pray this thing down safely!
Actually, the gears do have a point where they are designed to shear off when loading gets too high. In this case, the loading will ramp up quickly on touch-down so the shearing will occur very rapidly - you need to be prepared for the sudden jolt.
Something broke, gear will likely break off when they touch the runway!
Will land with approach from the east to west on a lesser used runway.
I'm gonna bet that the tires will blow first.
The tires are sideways and upon contact with the runway, the tire will peel away from the rim.
Long ago (in the Navy) we used to do stalls and "flop" the plane (R6D) to try releasing stuck wheelgear.
See? It says "burning" fuel? Must mean they're burning what they couldn't dump.
You Junior Detective Corps types crack me up.
MSNBC is one of the channels that Jet Blue broadcasts onboard. So, the people on board could be watching the coverage right now.
where is it? Thanks. :)
Oh man.
Prayers for all on board.
I'm an amateur too, and I picture it snapping off.
MSNBC says the passengers could techically be watching the MSNBC broadcast on board the flight right now. Yikes......
Ernie, aren't you pretty close to LAX?
Like splashing though a big bubble bath.
Any errant spark would have less of a chance of flame...hopefully.
That is just creepy!
Prayers up.
Per KABC: Plane landing on 25L at LAX...
KABC: Landing to occur on 25L at LAX.
I hope when that landing gear snaps off it flys somewhere safe!
Thats a large chunk of metal to unleash
Certainly I don't want to minimize the problem, but I have to think that the chances of a non-catastrophic end to this event are 99%+. Far better that the problem be the nose gear than the main wheel assemblies under the wings which bear the first and strongest impact of a normal landing.
The object, I would assume, would be to keep the nose up as long as possible after the main wheels touch down. If there are vacant seats, move the passengers to the back. Landing speed and flaps can be used to keep the nose up a bit longer than usual.
I'm sure the thoughts of all are with the crew and passengers. I'm optimistic.
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