Alaska Airlines flight makes rough landing at John Wayne Airport
It was a terrifying moment on board Alaska Airlines flight 1288 Sunday night as a plane traveling from Seattle to Orange County lost its left-side landing gear, causing sparks to fly on a runway at John Wayne Airport. A passenger on board filmed the landing of the Boeing 737-800 as it skidded down the runway with its engine dragging on the ground.
Experts say a dangerous combination of Tropical Storm Hilary's wind and rain, a short runway and a heavy plane caused the left side landing gear to fail.
Passenger Abhi Amineni, 16, was one of the 112 people aboard the plane and began recording when he noticed the cabin shaking more than usual.
"As we were making the final approach everything kept shaking," said Amineni. "Normally, this type of shaking is just normal turbulence but it normally doesn't happen this close to the ground."
Aminieni and his travel companion, Ahkil Arunkumar said there was no announcement by cabin crew to brace themselves and the landing was a surprise, noting other passengers began screaming when they touched down.
The plane remains badly damaged on the runway with one of the engines sitting on the ground and the landing gear not visible.
KCAL news spoke to Captain Ross Aimer, a retired pilot and aviation expert, who believes the pilots had no idea how hard the landing was going to be.
"Obviously not, they didn't know it was going to be this hard. Otherwise, they would have gone around," he said.
Aimer believes the weather could have played a factor in the hard landing.
"Perhaps they hit some wind shear just before touch down and the runway was wet," he said.
He added that with the airport's shorter runway and the conditions, LAX would have been his choice.
"I presume there was a lot of wind and rain which made it very hard on a short runway like Orange County Airport," Aimer said.
All of the passengers were unharmed and escorted off the plane by Orange County firefighters.
Although they say it was a terrifying experience, Aminieni and Arunkumar are thankful the pilot was able to land the plane safely.
"You have to give the pilot credit," said Arunkumar. "You're landing in high winds, low visibility and with one of the shortest commercial runways — it's a recipe for disaster so you have to give a pat on the back to the pilot."
Alaska Airlines released a statement saying they will focus on taking care of their passengers, which includes retrieving their luggage and, of course, inspecting the aircraft.
"The safety of our guests and employees is always our primary priority," the company said. "While this incident is a rare occurrence, our flight crews train extensively to safely manage through many scenarios. Our maintenance and safety teams are inspecting the aircraft."
At this time, the National Transportation Safety Board has not launched an investigation.
