Landing gear malfunction forces plane to make emergency landing at NJ airport; none hurt

Malfunction forces emergency landing at NJ airport

NEWARK, N.J. — A United Airlines jetliner landed Sunday without one of its landing gear fully deployed, damaging its right wing after a frightening few moments for passengers, who were braced in the crash position before an “unbelievably smooth” touchdown that drew cheers.

All 53 people aboard got off the plane safely.

Flight 634 from Chicago was approaching Newark Liberty International Airport about 9 a.m. when the plane suddenly began ascending again, said passenger Paul Wasylyszyn of Chicago.

The plane then began circling the airport, said Jim Falk of Middletown, N.J., who was sitting near the front of the plane.

“Normally a big plane like that doesn’t do a bypass, so we knew something was wrong,” said Falk, 40.

The captain then came over the intercom, advising the 48 passengers that there was “an issue” with one of the landing gears on the Airbus 319 and they were trying to fix it. The captain was composed about the announcements, several passengers said, commending the crew for it.

“They did a great job,” Falk said of the captain and crew. “There was no yelling, screaming, panicking or anything.”

Despite the problem, the mood was calm, even when passengers were instructed to gird themselves for a crash, said Falk, who sent several text messages to his wife about what was happening as she was on her way to pick him up from the airport.

Passengers braced themselves in “the crash position,” Falk said.

Three minutes to landing, the passengers were told. And then:

“We went down the runway, however they did it,” Falk said of the landing.

“If you didn’t know they were missing a set of wheels, you wouldn’t have thought there was something wrong,” Wasylyszyn said.

When the aircraft landed, part of its belly struck the runway, United spokeswoman Robin Urbanski said.

Passengers cheered and sighed when the plane came to a stop, Wasylyszyn said. Then they hurried out through the emergency exits, sliding down the chutes that had deployed and running as fast as they could toward Port Authority buses that were waiting to take them to the terminal, Falk said.

Everyone got “as far as you could” away from the plane, he said.

“I’ve had a lot of worse landings at Newark before,” said another passenger, Paul Lasiuk, a 46-year-old Chicago resident. “It was unbelievably smooth.”

Some of the right wing area was damaged, but the extent of the damage was still being determined Sunday, and Urbanski said it was not immediately clear what caused the malfunction.

Arlene Salac, a spokeswoman for the Federal Aviation Administration, said the right landing gear did not extend, though its nose and left landing gear did.

Still, the landing “was smooth — it was scary smooth,” said Falk. The owner of an electrical contracting business, he was traveling on business and returning from Las Vegas.

Falk said he was especially thankful to have an experienced pilot at the controls. United spokesman Michael Trevino said the airline would not release the name of the flight’s captain Sunday but didn’t specify when it would be available.

After the crew reported the problem, Newark airport was closed for about 20 minutes, said Ron Marsico, a spokesman for The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the airport. The airport’s other two runways were reopened soon after the plane landed, but some arriving flights were still being delayed Sunday evening by about an hour.

United announced that it would refund the fares of all the flight’s passengers.

The plane, which had left Chicago about 6 a.m. local time, remained on one of the airport’s three runways Sunday evening as investigators inspected it.

The landing comes exactly one week after a man took advantage of a guard’s absence to walk through a security checkpoint exit at Newark Liberty and say goodbye to his girlfriend, a security breach that triggered the shutdown of a busy terminal and led to major delays.

Haisong Jiang, 28, of Piscataway, N.J., was arrested Friday and faces a charge of trespassing and a fine of up to $500. He’s due in court in Newark this week.

A friend of Jiang’s, Ning Huang, said Saturday that he’s known Jiang for years and that Jiang is “a very good person” who didn’t realize the ramifications of his actions.

On Sunday afternoon, passengers on the United flight were leaving the airport after being taken to a room there for about three hours, then released. Their checked luggage was at baggage claim, but carryon bags remained on the plane.

Wasylyszyn, who came to New Jersey to visit relatives, left with relieved family members, and they all stopped to grab some pizza and relax.

“This trip certainly wasn’t what I expected,” he said.