JetBlue Passengers Watched Their Drama Unfold On In-Flight TV

Imagine you're on an airplane that you know has to make an emergency landing. Would you prefer to see how the situation is unfolding outside of your cabin, or would you instead prefer to imagine what’s going on, dutifully obeying the flight attendants’ instructions and being comforted by their assertions that "everything will be just fine?"

Thanks to the wonders of the digital age, the 140 passengers aboard JetBlue Flight 292 didn't have that option Wednesday night. As their A320 circled Burbank for over two hours, burning off fuel so an emergency landing attempt could be made, they were able to watch as FOX News televised their ordeal to them, as well as to a waiting nation, courtesy of JetBlue’s onboard personal satellite entertainment screens. They were able to witness the cause of their ordeal – the plane’s nosewheel stuck canted 90 degrees to the side -- as well as each lumbering orbit they made over Long Beach Airport.

“It was very weird,” said passenger Pia Varma to the Associated Press, after the pilots made a successful – dare we say beautiful – emergency landing at LAX Wednesday night. “It would’ve been so much calmer without [the televisions.]”

Another passenger called the experience “surreal.”

While the investigation of the cause of Wednesday’s problem is currently underway, Airbus states there have been at least four other issues with the nosegear on the A320. One of those involved an America West jet that “received minor damage when it landed at Port Columbus International Airport (CMH), Columbus, Ohio, with the nose wheels rotated 90 degrees,” according to the NTSB report on the February 16, 1999 incident. That aircraft, too, landed safely.

Investigators found the cause of the America West incident to be distorted seals on the steering control module’s selector valve, a known problem for the A320. Airbus had previously issued a TSB advising operators to replace the seals every 18 months to head off the problem.

Regardless of what is eventually found to be the cause of Wednesday’s incident, it cannot be denied that the pilots handled a potentially dangerous situation with the utmost professionalism, not only touching down safely – and perfectly straight, without benefit of nosewheel steering --  but also demonstrating a perfect full-stall landing in a commercial airliner.

The pilot who landed the plane, identified by LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa as Scott Burke, later joked to the mayor “he was sorry he put the plane down 6 inches off the centerline.”

FMI: www.jetblue.com, (1999 NTSB report)