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Mid-air drama live on TV

Smoke and flames stream from the broken nose gear of the JetBlue plane as it makes an emergency landing at Los Angeles airport on Wednesday. - PHOTO: AP

LOS ANGELES: The airliner circled Southern California for hours, crippled by a faulty landing gear, while inside its cabin 140 passengers watched their own life-and-death drama unfolding on live television. While satellite TV sets aboard JetBlue Flight 292 were tuned to news broadcasts, some passengers cried. Others tried to telephone relatives and one woman sent a text message to her mother in Florida attempting to comfort her in the event she died. The landing gear trouble — the front wheels were stuck in a sideways position — was discovered after the plane departed Bob Hope Airport in Burbank , en route to New York. The plane circled the Long Beach Airport, about 50 km south of Burbank, before being cleared to land at Los Angeles. It stayed in flight for three hours to burn off fuel. Zachary Mastoon of New York said it was ``surreal'' to watch his plane's fate being discussed on live TV while it was in the air. At one point, he said, he tried to call his family, but his cell phone call wouldn't go through. As the plane was about to touch the crew members ordered people to assume a crash position, putting their heads between their knees. Emergency crews met the plane on the runway. — AP

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