Nov 16, 2008 2:11 pm US/Central
Plane Slides Down Philly Runway Minus Front Wheels
PHILADELPHIA (AP) ―
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A US Airways Express plane made an emergency landing at the Philadelphia International Airport on Sunday with no front landing gear.
AP
A US Airways Express flight made an emergency landing at Philadelphia International Airport on Sunday after trouble with its front landing gear.
The Philadelphia-bound flight, operated by Piedmont Airlines, took off from Allentown at about 8:20 a.m. with 35 passengers and three crew members on board, according to airport and airline officials.
Prior to landing, the crew got an indication that the front landing gear was not down and did a flyover to confirm that it had not deployed, airport spokeswoman Victoria Lupica said.
Fire crews responded on the runway and used foam as a precaution, but the flight landed safely at around 9:20 a.m., Lupica said; she said the plane skidded on its nose, but there was no smoke and no fire. The airport had to be closed for about 25 minutes.
Passengers were taken to the terminal by bus; no injuries were reported.
The airport reported some flights delayed more than two hours around midday, as the plane was still on the runway and it was closed to traffic; the three other runways were open. The runway reopened at 1:18 p.m. and most flights were running on time by Sunday afternoon, Lupica said.
Morgan Durrant, a US Airways spokesman, said officials were investigating what went wrong with the plane, a deHavilland Dash-8 turboprop aircraft.
The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board were investigating, Lupica said.
(© 2009 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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