A320 with gear problem over LA

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
news:gDzYe.396264$xm3.210571@attbi_s21...


And what was up with deplaning? This thing comes sliding to a halt with
its nose gear smoking, and NO ONE gets off the plane for, what 10 minutes?
I understand that there was no reason to "blow the slides" but they sure
didn't seem to have anyone waiting in the wings with the air-stairs for
those poor folks.

See comment below.

Stranger still, how long did it take those fire trucks to appear in the
screen after the plane slid to a stop? It seemed close to a full minute,
although my memory could be faulty -- maybe it was 30 seconds. Either
way, what happened to the "trucks chasing the plane down the runway?"
Shoot, it looked like they had enough equipment there to place a fire
truck every 200 feet on that 12,000 foot runway.

The fire trucks stay behind the expected touchdown point (as do the stair
truck(s)) and don't stage every 200 feet down the runway for a very good
reason. The nose gear collapses, the pilot becomes a passenger, and the
airplane goes where it will. The passengers on board all survive, but
you've taken out four fire trucks and god knows how many firefighters when
the airplane swerves off the runway and nails them.


Jim