Questing about Jet Blue Airplane in LA.

[Dying Eagle]

It was slated to go to New York. So why not fly to New York to burn off the fuel. Why fly around in a circle for 4 hours? Its not a HUGE emergency, they will all be fine.

[ET Awful]

1. One very good reason . . .

It's still daylight in LA. If they flew to NYC, it would be 11:30 at the earliest before they arrived.

I'd rather do that landing in daylight.

[bigwillq]

2. YUP.

Land during light. Plus, I would be freaking even more if I had to fly three more hours or so before we could land (with no landing gear!!!!!)

[Dying Eagle]

5. well

bigwillq: "Plus, I would be freaking even more if I had to fly three more hours or so before we could land (with no landing gear!!!!!)"

Either way you are flying around for 4 hours without knowing, at least they could be at their destination when its over.

[bigwillq]

6. I thought about that too.

Now these poor people have to get on another plane and fly again.
Either way, not a good situation. At least they landed safely and all is well.

[Dying Eagle]

4. true,

but even if it was 8 AM, I think they would do the same thing.

[karlrschneider]

13. Also their maintenance is down there...not only for repairs but for

tech support -while- the event's going on.

[metis]

17. Jet Blue maintenance

Hmmmm Someone just told me that major maintenance for Jet Blue is done by Air Canada, in Winnipeg.

[karlrschneider]

18. Maybe it is. I was told they had a maint base at LGB.

So much crap information...

[dflprincess]

3. I don't know why they built an airline that can't dump fuel

(according to MSNBC). I can't imagine having to fly in circles for 4 hours, wondering all the time what was going to happen when it landed.

[El Supremo]

7. You said it!

What if they had to land right away? Go dump the fuel in the Pacific. 145 peoples' lives depend on it.

And - don't they foam runways anymore?

[Dying Eagle]

9. not the pacific

how about dump the fuel over the capital building in Sacramento followed by a match. Then Arnold could live out his stupid movies! J/K

[MindPilot]

14. That foam decision is up to the captain.

I'm guessing he felt foam would increase the risk of sliding off the runway, and that was a greater risk than the fire that may result from the nose wheel collapse. Obviously he chose well.

And that airplane doesn't have the ability to dump fuel. The engineers have to made hard choices sometimes too.

[El Supremo]

15. All that foam does is snuf a fire.

It is not thick enough to cause slipperyness. However it does get thrown up in the pilot's vision.

BTW, i'm not a pilot, but my dad had over 32,000 hours.

[political_invader]

8. WTG Kudos to the CREW nt

[MindPilot]

10. As I understand it the nose wheel wouldn't retract

that would create so much drag that there wouldn't be enough fuel to get to NYC. That would be four hours low and slow, they might have made it to Denver.

[KerryOn]

16. 100% Correct, You get a gold star!

The plane would have to fly at reduced speed, because of the increased drag of the landing gear, and the plane would burn fule at twice the normal rate.

[Jakey]

19. More structure than drag

Actually the aircraft would be speed restricted to max gear extended speed which is not due to drag consideration but rather a structural integrity "do NOT exceed" limit. Beyond that limit, gear separation and associated airframe damage/separation could occur. Not something you would like to cycle through your engines.

[FloridaPat]

11. Several reasons. If things go badly, it's nic to be in a hospital where

you live. If the plane goes to NY and has another emergency, the airport where it will have to land may have little to no emergency vehicles and personnel to handle the airplane. How would you like to be a passagner and sit on a plane for 8 hours wondering if they're you last? Bet panice would ensure rather easily. And lastly, this way you don't have every single newspaper in the country watching and commenting on your broken plane - just hopefully the city in question.

[RoyGBiv]

12. There's a big hunk of metal ...

It's in the sky. It's developed a problem. You know, sorta, what the problem is, but you don't know what caused it or if it is a precursor to a bigger problem. Rather than take that big hunk of metal and move it across large areas that don't have 10,000 foot landing strips with large facilities and capacity to handle your worst case scenario, you move it to the closest place that has the best possible collection of infrastructure to deal with what is and might be happening.

It's a safety issue. Convenience should always be ignored in these situations.