Nov 16, 2008 11:29 pm US/Eastern
Plane Makes Emergency Landing At Philly Airport
PHILADELPHIA (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 This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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