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Emergency Southwest Landing Was ‘So Fast it Was Eerie’

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A Southwest Airlines flight had to make an emergency landing at Los Angeles International Airport on Saturday due to an issue with the aircraft’s flaps.

The Los Angeles Times reported Southwest Airlines (WN) Flight 1704, en route to Burbank Bob Hope Airport (BUR), made an emergency landing at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) on Saturday.

According to an email from Southwest, “the captain in command of WN1704 from Sacramento to Burbank diverted the aircraft to LAX after an indication of a performance issue with the flaps” on approach to BUR. Southwest employees worked to accommodate the 81 passengers on board, either by helping them onto other flights or via ground transportation to their final destinations, according to the airline’s statement.

The aircraft was out of service through Sunday and has been inspected, according to airline officials who added that “necessary repairs to these redundant flight control surfaces would be completed before the aircraft returned to service.”

No passengers were injured in the incident. Paul Mitchell, a passenger on board, told the Times, “We came into LAX so low and so fast it was eerie. We landed…almost at full speed.”

Mitchell added, “Everybody applauded once the plane landed. I think it was a great job by the pilot, but it was obviously a little scary as we were getting there, and it was incredibly fast and kind of a real shock the way that we came in on the landing.”

Southwest officials apologized for the inconvenience and noted “there is no higher concern for us than the safe operation of every flight and the safe transport of our customers and employees.”

[Photo: iStock]

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Doc Savage September 22, 2014

Good job by the WN crew.