Leave it to Jet Blue, OTBKB’s favorite airline, to get famous for a near-miss crash landing. They just seem to do everything right and they’ve changed my attitude toward flying since I started flying with them in early 2002.

Jet Blue was the first airline with locked cockpit doors. Their on-line reservation system is excellent as are their automatic check-in kiosks. Television screens for every seat. Snacks but no yucky airline meals. Great staff Informative pilots: Jet Blue is one cool airline. 

And yesterday’s big story about the the calm heroics of the pilot and crew made the cover of all the  major dailies, including the New York Post, whose headline read: JET PHEW!

An article in the San Jose Mercury News mentions that one of the passengers was Brooklyn- bound. 27-year-old, Zacharay Mostoon, a multi-instrumentalist and producer. He along with the rest of the passengers watched their frightening landing on the television screen in front of his seat.

Zachary Mastoon, 27, a professional musician who was taking the flight from Burbank back home to Brooklyn, said the broadcasts were “a little surreal.”

“I thought how it must have been like on Sept. 11 watching on television and seeing the planes come toward the building,” he said.

The in-flight broadcasts, however, were turned off before the final moments of the drama. For 15 tense seconds, as passengers braced themselves and prayed, the plane careened down the runway as pilot Scott Burke balanced it on its rear landing gear, holding the nose high to reduce pressure on the malfunctioning front wheel.

The aircraft then settled forward onto the nose wheel. Within moments, the front landing gear began smoking as the rubber tire burned to the rim. The wheel then exploded into a fiery display that burned until the aircraft slowed to a halt.

No injuries

As the plane came to rest, scores of fire and rescue vehicles sped toward it across the tarmac. But the passengers and crew emerged unhurt, some walking down the stairs waving to cameras and giving one another high-fives.

Burke had delivered what experts said was a “perfect” touchdown of a crippled aircraft.

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who spoke to the pilot at the airport, praised him.

“He walked off the plane with a big smile on his face, just cool as a cucumber. He joked that he was sorry he put the plane down 6 inches off the center line,” Villaraigosa said.

A JetBlue representative declined to provide any information about Burke.

A recording by a camera for Los Angeles television station KCAL of the pilot’s conversation with a ground crew member reveals a calm man who even had time to joke about his predicament.

“Do you want to trade places with me?” Burke asked a mechanic on the ground.

Aboard the plane, passengers first learned of the problem 10 to 15 minutes into the flight when Burke announced that the plane had a problem with its landing gear, said Mastoon. The pilot said he was in contact with ground crews at Long Beach Airport, where JetBlue has its regional hub, and in New York to try to determine what the problem was.

At that point, some people on the plane started to cry, but most stayed calm, Mastoon said. The crew tried to calm people by telling jokes.

Prepared for worst

Before the plane landed, passengers were told to put their heads down toward their laps and brace for landing. Passengers were shouting, “Brace, brace, brace.”

But the landing turned out to be incredibly smooth, Mastoon said.

“Everyone applauded,” Mastoon said. “There were tears of joy. Couples were hugging. There were pats on the back.”

The drama also generated strong emotions on the ground. Some people curious about the plane’s fate parked along the frontage roads of the LAX runway, hoping to witness the landing.

At the Tom Bradley International Terminal, about 50 people watched the landing transfixed at the Gordon Biersch Brewing Co. restaurant, many of their own flights delayed by the problem. They erupted in applause when the plane landed safely.

Flight 292 lifted off from Bob Hope Airport in Burbank just after 3 p.m., bound for New York’s Kennedy International Airport. Within minutes, however, pilots noticed a problem. A landing gear indicator light remained on after takeoff.

Burke then flew south toward Long Beach Airport and contacted the tower for help.

“I heard the pilot asking for emergency equipment,” said Stew Sawyer, who lives by Long Beach Airport and was monitoring the control tower radio.

“The pilot asked for a flyby so the tower could check his landing gear. He flew by real low, and the tower said, `Your landing gear is 90 degrees the wrong way.’ ”

Burke was told to pull back up and to burn off all excess fuel before attempting an emergency landing. Some aircraft are capable of dumping fuel reserves over the ocean, but the Airbus A320 cannot do that. So, for the next few hours, the plane flew back and forth over the coast as the crew contacted JetBlue headquarters and formulated a plan.

At the same time, the severity of the situation began to grow on passengers, some of whom had settled into sleep after takeoff.

To shift as much weight as possible to the rear of the plane — helping to keep the nose of the plane high during the emergency landing — crew members asked passengers to move to different seats. Flight attendants instructed passengers on how to brace themselves by bending forward.

-From the San Jose Mercury News.