TodayAA MD80 engine failure at LGA yesterday on takeoff
Emergency landing at JFK after LaGuardia takeoff
BY BILL MASON
An American Airlines MD-80 bound for Atlanta was forced to make an emergency landing Monday when one of its two rear-mounted engines failed shortly after takeoff from LaGuardia Airport, airline officials said.
The plane landed a short time later at Kennedy Airport. No one was injured and the cause of the engine failure was not known Monday, said Tim Wagner, an American Airlines spokesman.
Passengers from the 140-seat aircraft were put on another American flight or on flights from other carriers to get to Atlanta, he said.
American Airlines flight 2393 took off from Runway 4 at 4:39 p.m. and airport personnel immediately knew there was a problem, officials said.
Debris, believed to be from one of the aircraft's two rearmounted engines, fell to the runway below.
Ed Engels, 51, who lives in the Throgs Neck section of the Bronx, said when he heard the loud sound of a straining jet engine outside his condo, he went out to the second floor balcony and looked up. He is used to seeing planes overhead as they approach or take off from LaGuardia, he said. Just not this close, he said.
Engel said the plane couldn't have been more than 600 feet above.
"It was obvious that it was trying to climb but was unable to, flying directly over my head," Engel said early Tuesday. "I watched as he was pulling out to Long Island Sound. That plane was limping at a very low altitude. I watched until he went out of sight. I was very afraid."
Engels said his wife and 5-year-old daughter joined him on the terrace. They could hear other people screaming because they were certain the jet was going to crash, he said.
Bill McLoughlin, National Air Traffic Controllers president at LaGuardia, was working at the time in the LaGuardia tower with six or seven other controllers.
"We heard a large bang on departure," he said. Moments later, the pilot radioed the tower that he had lost his right engine and was declaring an emergency.
McLoughlin said there are degrees of emergency.
"On a level of one to three, this was a level two," McLoughlin said. "Number three would be an aircraft that actually crashed."
The pilot had difficulty gaining altitude and control of the aircraft, McLoughlin said, and controllers cleared aircraft from airspace around that plane, notified Port Authority security, New York City police and fire department about the emergency, and notified JFK officials to do the same, in case the pilot decided to try to land there.
"It was scary," said McLoughlin, a controller for 22 years. "We're sitting watching this guy struggling to altitude ... going over the Bronx, then his path back over Queens, over the Sound, skirting Nassau County southwest of Lake Success."
The pilot chose to make his emergency landing at JFK, where the runways are longer, McLoughlin said, and the airspace and runway he wanted were cleared for him. McLoughlin said he received word at 5:10 p.m. that the aircraft had landed safely on JFK Runway 31R.
The debris on LaGuardia's Runway 4 was cleared, and that runway was reopened at 5:16 p.m., McLoughlin said.
"Losing an engine is a pretty significant emergency," McLoughlin said. But the coordination between the controllers at the two airports, the pilot, and emergency units worked. "They demonstrated outstanding teamwork, calmly and collectively."
MD-80s like the one that landed yesterday at JFK have had their share of problems this year.
Over March 26 and March 27, and then again between April 8 and April 12, an FAA safety audit against American Airlines forced the airline to ground its MD-80 series fleet, to inspect the aircraft's hydraulic wiring. American was forced to cancel nearly 2,500 flights in March and more than 3,200 in April.
In addition, Delta Air Lines inspected their own MD-80 fleet this year to ensure their 117 MD-80s were also operating within regulation. This prompted Delta to cancel 275 flights.
Staff writer Micheline Maroni contributed to this story.
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