Allegiant MD-80 A Bit Worse For Wear

There were some tense moments onboard an Allegiant Air MD-80 flying from Portsmouth, HN to Orlando-Sanford International Airport Thursday afternoon, when the plane's flight crew detected a hydraulic problem affecting the landing gear about 40 minutes from landing.

After notifying ATC, the plane's crew attempted to lower the nosewheel manually, but were unsuccessful, according to The Dover Democrat. The maingear deployed normally.

Orlando's WKMG-6 reports the jet with 147 people onboard circled the Florida airport for about an hour, before coming in to land. Video footage of the landing showed the aircraft land smoothly on its mainwheels, and rolling down the runway as the plane's pilot held the nose up as long as possible. As the plane's speed decreased, the nose dropped with a hard bump to the surface, and skidded to a smooth stop on the runway.

"The crew reported a hydraulics problem related to the nose gear," FAA spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen told the station. 

"There were some sparks and a lot of smoke, no flames," added Diane Crews, executive vice president of Orlando-Sanford International Airport.

All onboard the plane evacuated from the aircraft via emergency slides. One woman reportedly sprained her ankle during the evacuation process, but declined treatment.

Report created 3/30/2007   Record 6
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IDENTIFICATION
  Regis#: AAY758        Make/Model: MD80      Description: MD-81/82/83/87/88
  Date: 03/29/2007     Time: 2016

  Event Type: Incident   Highest Injury: None     Mid Air: N    Missing: N
  Damage: Unknown

LOCATION
  City: SANFORD   State: FL   Country: US

DESCRIPTION
  ALLEGIANT AIRINES, AAY758, A BOEING MCDONALD DOUGLES MD-83, LANDED NOSE
  GEAR UP,  PASSENGERS EVACUATED USING SLIDES, NO INJURIES REPORTED, SANFORD,
  FL

INJURY DATA      Total Fatal:   0
                 # Crew:   5     Fat:   0     Ser:   0     Min:   0     Unk:   
                 # Pass: 147     Fat:   0     Ser:   0     Min:   0     Unk:   
                 # Grnd:         Fat:   0     Ser:   0     Min:   0     Unk:   

WEATHER: 2028 SP 07016G21 10SM FEW045 27/13 A3014

OTHER DATA
  Activity: Business      Phase: Landing      Operation: Air Carrier

  Departed: PORTSMOUTH, NH              Dep Date:    Dep. Time:     
  Destination: SANFORD, FL              Flt Plan: IFR          Wx Briefing: 
  Last Radio Cont: 
  Last Clearance: 

  FAA FSDO: ORLANDO, FL  (SO15)                   Entry date: 03/30/2007
 
FMI: www.allegiant.com, www.faa.gov