Emergency Landing For MD-82

A Continental Airlines MD-82 passenger jet, headed from Las Vegas to Cleveland, made an emergency landing at the South Bend Regional Airport on Monday after its crew reported problems maintaining level flight.

Flight 1416, carrying 141 passengers and five crew members, landed about 4:30 p.m. There were no reported injuries, reports CBS affiliate WSBT-TV.

The plane, in the same series as the Alaskan Airliner that crashed off the coast of California last month, is being inspected by safety experts. Alaskan Airlines Flight 261 crashed Jan. 31 northwest of Los Angeles, killing 88 people.

Airlines have been ordered to inspect MD-80s after stabilizer jack screw problems were found in the Alaska Airlines wreckage.

A Federal Aviation Administration spokesman stated that Flight 1416's problem was in the wing controls, not the stabilizer.

The plane had been cruising at 33,000 feet when the crew reported a change in altitude of less than 1,000 feet, the airline said in a statement.

It was not known what caused the drop in altitude and repair crews were investigating, said Catherine Stengel, a Continental spokeswoman.

FAA spokesman Tom Kenney said crew members reported problems with aileron trim - a control surface on the wing that controls the rolling movements of an airplane.

The MD-82, one of the MD-80 series of planes made by McDonnell Douglas, has a strong safety track record, according to FAA data.

But after the January crash, the FAA ordered the inspection of the horizontal stabilizer on more than 1,100 MD-80, MD-90, DC-9 and Boeing 717 planes - which use similar control mechanisms as the jet that crashed - after jackscrew problems were found in the Alaska Airlines wreckage.

The Continental passengers were transferred to another plane and taken to Cleveland, airport officials said.