American Airlines Flight Skids Off Runway, Landing Gear Snaps At O'Hare Airport Amid Snowy Veterans Day
CHICAGO (CBS) -- An American Airlines flight from North Carolina slid off a runway at O'Hare International Airport on Monday morning, after its landing gear snapped, tipping the jet onto its wing, as blowing snow was falling in the Chicago area.
Video posted on social media shows the twin-engine Embraer 145 landing on Runway 10L and sliding sideways, stopping with its wing in the grassy area next to the runway. Passengers are heard gasping sighs of relief.
"I think we landed!" one passenger is heard saying.
American Eagle flight 4125, operating by Envoy Air, arrived at O'Hare from Greensboro, North Carolina, around 7:45 a.m., and slid off the runway due to icy conditions, according to the Chicago Department of Aviation and American Airlines spokeswoman Gianna Urgo.
"All 38 passengers and three crew members were deplaned from the aircraft and are now safely back in the terminal," Urgo said in an email.
Passenger Joseph Lian shared video showing the plane veering onto the grass alongside the runway after landing, and the right wing of the jet tipping onto the ground.
The incident prompted a ground stop at O'Hare, halting all landings until about 8:30 a.m.
Passengers on the plane said it was the flight's second attempt to land at O'Hare, after the crew aborted their first attempt and circled the airport for about 20 minutes.
"I think everybody was just holding their breath, because we didn't know what was coming. A lot of people were bracing for it, grabbing the seats in front of us," passenger Shaun Steele said.
Fellow passenger Luis Torres Curet said the airline put passengers at risk by landing in unsafe conditions.
"The conditions here were very bad. It was windy and it was icy," he said. "They should have known that. There was ice on the road, there was wind coming across. They attempted one landing. It failed, and they came back and attempted again, and we're lucky that we had a very competent pilot there that knew what to do."
Curet said passengers could feel the pilot zig-zagging the plane on the runway to get it to stop, before the landing gear snapped.
"Then the plane actually went sideways, and then the wing – the actual right wing – stopped the plane from capsizing once we got off the runway," he said.
While passengers credited the pilot for keeping them safe, they complained about the response from American Airlines customer service.
Steve Krasicky said passengers like him who checked baggage won't be able to get those bags for several hours. He said he'll have to go to a meeting and come back to the airport later on Monday to pick up his checked baggage.
"American could have done a nicer job of at least greeting us, and telling us what's going on. We had to figure this out on our own," Krasicky said.
A Chicago Fire Department spokesperson confirmed they responded to the incident, but said everyone was off the plane by the time fire crews arrived, and said there were no injuries.
Snow has been falling in Chicago all morning, and O'Hare was reporting winds of about 20 mph, and gusts of up to 30 mph at the time of the incident.
