Two Narrowbodies Go Slip Slidin' Away

The December '08 holiday travel season will likely go down in the books as one of the more troublesome for airline passengers around the country. In addition to horror stories of people camped out in terminals nationwide due to weather-related delays and cancellations, at least four jets will likely be out of commission for awhile following relatively minor incidents Wednesday.

American Airlines had particularly rotten luck at Chicago's O'Hare International, as not one but two of its MD-80 series airliners suffered problems within about 20 minutes of each other. The Associated Press reports Flight 1544 to Reagan National Airport near Washington, DC skidded off the pavement at around 7:15 pm as it taxied into position for takeoff on Runway 22-Left.

The aircraft came to rest with left maingear and nosewheels in the grass. None of the 54 passengers and five crewmembers onboard were injured, and American routed passengers on other flights.

A slightly more serious incident occurred earlier in the evening. An American MD-82 operating as Flight 1235 to St. Louis turned back to the airport about five minutes after takeoff, when a loud bang came from one of the aircraft's two aft-mounted turbofans. The plane's pilots declared an emergency, and the flight landed without incident at O'Hare about 15 minutes later.

"We were about maybe a minute or two into the flight, and we heard a loud bang that we thought was landing gear," one passenger told WLS-7. "But then the plane kind of tilted a little bit and shuddered a little bit, and then the pilot came on about 10 seconds later and said our right engine had gone out, had blown, and we were going to turn around and make an emergency landing back at O'Hare."

About two hours later, the crew of a United Airlines Boeing 757 inbound to O'Hare declared an emergency due to unspecified mechanical trouble... the third emergency call for O'Hare ground crews of the evening. Flight 766 from Santa Ana, CA landed safely.

About 150 miles west of Chicago, an AirTran Airways Boeing 717 skidded off the runway at Quad Cities International Airport in Moline, IL after landing Wednesday morning. The Orlando Sentinel reports the aircraft's right maingear and nosewheel slid off the pavement as the jet was while turning onto a taxiway. None of the 116 persons onboard the flight from Florida were injured.

FMI: www.aa.com, www.airtran.com