Jet Blue Sticks the Landing !!
 

caught the last ten minutes of this whole thing.. Didn't even know it was going on.

Pilots did a great job.. what a picture perfect emergency landing..

:iagree: Kudos to the pilots for making a perfect landing, considering the situation.

I wouldn't have wanted to have been a passenger up there for 3 f-ing hours, though :tsk:
I'm amazed that the Airbus isn't able to dump fuel :wtf:

It might just be that they didn't want to dump fuel over a metropolitan area.. That seems dangerous. :dunno:

No, what I heard on FoxNews is that the Airbus doesn't have this capability.

Normally in a sitation like that they would just fly out over the ocean and dump the fuel there, not over a heavily populated area.

I think that aircrew (including the flight attendants) earned a cold beer for that whole episode today!

Ah, good point... I forgot LA had a coast :tsk: ... I'm losing my mind. Anyway, that is surprising.

I give it :thumbup: :thumbup:

Excellent job. I was talking to a friend in Houston about their plans to leave for the hurricane. When I saw the landing about to happen I said "Let me call you back. Real crisis in the making." :slap: Now they won't answer... :tsk:

Here's a couple of pics:
How the front landing gear looked...

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/...plane650.2.jpg


And, how that wheel looked skidding down the runway...

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/...plane650.3.jpg

Thankfully everything went well. I couldn't even imagine what was going through the passengers minds.

I hope they recheck every jetblue plane as my parents and brother are flying out to Burbank airport from JFK this coming saturday.

when the front landing gear caught on fire it was intense!
but it seemed airport officials and the pilot knew exactly what they were doing, so that was a good thing.

one traumatic event is over, now lets all make a prayer for those who will have to face rita...

Please do not listen to all what clueless journalists can say! Of course the Airbus a320 like other airliners is equipped with emergency fuel dump systems that enable it to release fuel in mid air.

Not that I'd take what was said on FoxNews to the bank, but what was the purpose of keeping them up in the air for over 3 hours if not to burn off excess fuel? :dunno:

To the pilot and crew.....
 

Thank you for a job well done~!!!
:bow: :bow: :bow: :bow: :bow: :bow: :bow: :bow: :bow: :bow: :bow:

From what I've heard from all pilots tonight, it seems like this plane behave extraordinarily well during landing given the situation. All the pilots on TV were expecting the steel beam holding the tires of the landing gear to collapse and it held.
For that we should give an A+ to Airbus as well as the pilot. Don't forget it's FRENCH AND GERMAN engineering and we know about GERMAN engineering, don't we?

Wow this is a miracle! It's like that Air France flight that crashed here in Toronto. Went up in flames, and everyone got out.

Today's events shows a perfect combination of a gifted flight crew, and a fool-proof aircraft. I hoenstly never knew the landing gear rod was that strong!

I am not sure why they did not release fuel over the ocean but as an ex private pilote (have not pilotted a plane since I moved to the USA) and to have been lucky enough to do my end of engineering school training period at Airbus industry in Toulouse France (actually at the exact same time when the A320 was getting its certification- 1987), I can assure you that this plane like any other airliner can dump fuel in mid air.

The Airbus A320 DOES NOT HAVE FUEL DUMPING CAPABILITY

The reason they were in a rotational pattern around LAX was to accelerate fuel burn to meet landing stress requirements. If you noticed, they were flying with full flaps and gear down[not necessarily by choice] to increase drag and therfore make the engines work harder and burn more fuel.

Imagine what dumping a gallon of gasoline on your yard does to the grass, now imagine dumping thousands of gallons of high octane jet fuel into the environment. That is the thinking behind the lack of dumping capability on some Airbus aircraft.

godeacs06, thanks for the precision. I understand from your response that you are a pilot and probably more experienced than I am. Therefore I will take your word for it although I am extremely surprised that an airliner does not have this capability.

That pilot would be on my xmas card list for life. At 9 my first flight was on a private plane with my friends dad to view a movie plane crash in the high sierras that killed 36. At 11 going to Vegas by myself, don't ask, a similar incident to today happened. Flying sucks.

Thanks godeacs06 for getting that in there - I was just about to clear that one up myself. It's only the larger airliners that have a fuel dump capability and that would be used when a quick approach and landing was required - eg. an uncontrollable fire. Normal procedure would be to burn fuel in a low hold to get down to your maximum landing weight.

Had the airbus been on fire they would not have hesitated to make an overweight landing as the problems associated with that are greatly outweighed by a fire burning through the main spar and a wing falling off!!!

Small airliners under the size of the airbus A320 and the boeing 737 can never dump fuel. They will simply look at the problem and decide whether they want to hold and reduce their weight or get on the ground as soon as possible - at any weight.

Looks like there was a similar incident in Barcelona when a KLM 737 landed after a birdstrike caused it's steering to fail:

http://www.airliners.net/open.file?i...sok=&photo_nr=

I thought the pilots did a great job and made the landing kind of anti climatic which I think pissed off all the news channels. They thought they were going to have a great story, instead the guy sticks it as well as an undamaged plane. Way to go guys!!!!!Do you think the pilot got a change of pants and a cocktail after?

My mistake folks, sorry for that. Just confirmation from my father (yea at 67 the old man is still very much up-to-date with airplane technology) that I was wrong. Here is what he told me 'no dumping fuel capability on small airliners like A320, B737, MD80/MD90.... Available on B727,B777,B767, DC10, MD11, B747 and larger AIRBUS like A340. We learn everyday

No problem alpac, you're correct in your last post too.

Basically what happens in every situation similar to this, is the pilots converse with ATC, maintenance, manufacturers, etc to "triage" the specific problem on board. Any fire on airliner the basic goal is to get it down as fast as possible. Every plane has a landing gear stress limits and, believe it or not, every runway has weight limits as well. So in an urgent disaster like a fire, all airliners would get down to maximum landing weight for the conditions and try to set her down.

In a situation like yesterday's, it would take a 747 with a transcontinental load of fuel probably about 5 hours or more to burn enough fuel in the central tanks and wing tanks to get down to a low enough and BALANCED weight.

So obviously all large airliners have fuel dumping capability while the smaller ones do not.

What aggravates me is how little research it would take the major networks to find out small but important details like these. Instead, some stupid anchor who cannot even get the model and manufacturer of the airplane correct is making dubious comments that just reduce his/her and the network's credibility. If anyone watched Larry King's "play-by-play" from last night, you know what I am talking about.

Hey, are you taking pot-shots at Larry??? The guy got his trademark suspenders, that's all he needs. :bustingup :bustingup :bustingup :bustingup

Larry: "So Bob, it looks like they are landing, is that fire and smoke?"
Airline pilot on the phone: "Yes Larry, I believe they are landing. And that is fire and smoke which is normal when you land doing 160 knots with friction on dry pavement"
Larry: "Ahh, yes. Now is that fire dangerous?"
Airline pilot: "OF COURSE ITS DANGEROUS"

It was pure idiocy at its finest, coming out of the mouth of Larry King.

Now that IS redundant, :rofl:

Hey godeacs06.

What do you or did you fly?

I was on 737's for 5 years and then 747's for 2 years. I'm now out of aviation and really enjoy all those moments when people start talking about flying. Much more fun not to let on that you have any experience and watch them dig a big hole.

Actually dxbX5, I am not pilot in any sense besides Microsoft Flight Simulator. Just kidding...about the flight simulator stuff.

Aviation has always been a hobby of mine and I have been fascinated with commercial aviation since I was a little kid. Most of my knowledge base comes from my grandfather who flew 707s and retired flying 727s for a couple different airlines. I've continued to learn as much as possible since he passed away. I would love to become a pilot myself but I just can't seem to find the time as the 'rents want me to finish college and get my degree first.

BTW dxb, I love the sig!

You seam to have a heck of a good knowledge of aviation procedures and rules for somebody who is not a pilot. As an ex (and humble) private pilot it sounds like I could learn a thing or two from you

I try not to admit that my interest in aviation was more of an obsession a couple years ago. Before 9/11, I was one of those guys that sat on parking garage roofs taking pictures of planes..now that practice is, for good reason, illegal.

godeacs06, it's definitely a good idea that you finish college and get the degree first. It's not a career that many people leave by choice, but can be a very volatile one in this day and age. Major airlines were once considered safe to work for, but times are hard in commercial aviation and there are many pilots out there. You just never know how safe your job is.

I was lucky and enjoyed my time flying commercially. I now have a new job and whilst I miss flying, I don't miss the long hours and the jet lag. Trying to work out if I can afford to get my own aircraft soon - you never get rid of wanting to fly.

BTW - thanks for the comment on the sig!!

They had to be ex-Navy :thumbup: - A GREAT job. Flying is all about emergency procedures - Fortunately they had time to talk with others to confirm what they were going to do - Did not see it myself, but did they foam the runway to miminize the fire threat? Or did they figure the cleanup would shut the airport down for too long. :rolleyes: