[BurbankKarl]

if it were such an emergency, I wonder why they didnt divert to Mojave which is far closer to the area than Victorville....

[Doctor Raoul]

Close to San Carlos?

[NormsRevenge]

not sure,, probably the crew’s call.

sounds like they hit a strong downthrust and powered their way out of it, damn lucky regardless. I hope they release some pics of the plane..

[DuncanWaring]

Looking at the map, Victorville looks to be about 20 miles further than Mojave from the Tahoe neighborhood.

Unless they were in imminent danger of falling out of the sky, they probably figured landing at their home base would simplify things a lot.

[azhenfud]

Could’ve been a number of considerations....
Runway weight restrictions? non-precision approach at Mojave? runway length? manned fire apparatus/station?

Mojave Max Runway Length: 9502 x 200
Victorville Max Runway Length: 15,050 ft. x 150 ft. precision instrument approach (ILS-Rwy 17/35) and a 9,138 ft. x 150 ft. runway (3/21)