Precise skills saved 146 on Airbus

The nosewheel tyre of the Airbus smoked, then burst into flame during the landing. Pictures / Reuters

A New Zealand airline pilot who watched a passenger jet drag its crippled nose gear down a Los Angeles runway yesterday has hailed the efforts of the pilot.

The aircraft, which triggered a sheet of sparks before coming safely to rest, would have been approaching the Los Angeles International Airport runway at about 280km/h, the New Zealand pilot said.

The pilot, who watched the emergency landing live on CNN, said the JetBlue Airbus A320 would have slowed to just under 200km/h by the time the nose wheel hit the ground.

The JetBlue pilot would have deliberately held the nose wheel off the runway for as long as possible because of the risk of it collapsing. "It wouldn't be difficult but it would be a precise manoeuvre," he said.

Pilots were trained to deal with potential problems such as engine or systems failure but not the particular problem experienced by the JetBlue aircraft.

There were no reports of injuries among the 146 passengers and crew aboard.

The drama began when pilots realised the plane's front wheels did not retract properly on takeoff and ended after the the Airbus circled for three hours to burn off fuel.

The entire incident played out on live television, with a number of US networks carrying pictures of the airborne Flight 292 with its nose gear turned sideways.

Images of the landing showed the pilot easing the plane on to the airport's longest runway as smoke and sparks shot from the burning front wheels before the plane came to a rest. The flames had disappeared by the time the plane stopped.

Emergency crews surrounded the plane, which had been en route from nearby Burbank to New York, and a truck equipped with a stairway pulled up to the aircraft. Passengers streamed calmly off, guided by firefighters.

The travellers later recounted fraught hours they spent watching their own predicament unfold on television screens built into the back of each seat, a feature offered on JetBlue flights.

"The thing that scared me the most was watching it on television," said passenger Zachary Mastoon, 27, a New York guitarist.

"It felt like the New York subway, rattling and shaking," Dave Rienicz, 39, a comedian from Burbank, said of the landing. "It was pretty intense, but it wasn't panicky."

Rienicz said he videotaped a brief goodbye message to his girlfriend with a camera "just in case".

Alexandra Jacobs, 6 1/2 months pregnant, recalled members of the flight crew chanting "Brace, brace, brace" as the plane touched down. "That for me was scary, because it felt like a prayer," she said.

JetBlue said it was working with the Federal Aviation Administration, the National Transportation Safety Board and Airbus to investigate the cause of the mishap.

The plane was carrying 140 passengers and a six-member flight crew, consisting of two pilots and four flight attendants.

* A similar incident involving another Airbus A320 happened in February 1999. The safety board found then that there had been three previous such incidents. Airbus spokeswoman Mary Anne Greczyn said jets by other manufacturers had experienced similar problems.

- REUTERS, STAFF REPORTER