"Hustle" Star Survives JetBlue Scare

By Charlie Amter Fri Sep 23, 4:37 PM ET

On almost any New York-bound plane out of the Los Angeles area, chances are a celebrity will be on board.

The ill-fated JetBlue Flight 292 was no exception.

Hustle & Flow star Taryn Manning was among the 145 passengers and crew on the plane en route from Burbank's Bob Hope Airport to New York's JFK Wednesday that were forced to make an emergency landing due to defective landing gear.

"Yesterday was a life-changing day," Manning said in a statement released by her publicist Thursday. "The pilot is a true hero. I'm thankful to be alive."

In an interview with Access Hollywood, Manning said she was traveling to New York with her publicist. The actress-singer said the pilot notified the passengers early on that there was a problem and the plane would have to land at Los Angeles International Airport.

"You never think it is going to happen to you," she said. "I wrote little notes to my boyfriend and to my mom and brother...I was not wanting to be writing what I was writing. Everybody was putting their IDs on them. It was scary."

Manning was not the only Hollywood type on board. Actress Joanna Going (Into the West, Inventing the Abbotts), who is the wife of Nip/Tuck star
Dylan Walsh, and their young daughter, Stella, were also en route to Manhattan, as was One Life to Live actor Tuc Watkins. He plans to recount his harrowing experience on The View Friday.

Earlier reports claimed Manning's Hustle costar DJ Qualls and Nip/Tuck's Kelly Carlson (Kimber) were also passengers on the hobbled jet, but both Qualls' publicist and reps for Carlson told E! Thursday their clients were not on board. Qualls, however, was at the airport, where he met Manning.

In a drama that played out live on television across the United States Wednesday afternoon, the Airbus A320 jet circled the skies of Southern California before touching down at LAX with a front wheel facing the wrong direction.

Manning and the other passengers had access to MSNBC and Fox News via JetBlue's in-flight TVs, with many watching their plane and hearing various commentators predicting the outcome of the emergency landing. The sets went dark about 15 minutes before the plane descended.

"We couldn't believe the irony, that we were watching our own demise on TV--it was post-postmodern," passenger Alexandra Jacobs, a Los Angeles-based reporter for the New York Observer told CNN.

Because the plane needed to land nose up, the crew ushered passengers and their carry-ons to the rear of the plane. Passengers had to assume the crash position, head between knees, as the A320 made its final approach. One flight attendant yelled, "Brace! Brace! Brace!"

The pilot, Scott Burke, made a textbook landing on a cleared-out runway surrounded by emergency vehicles.

Manning tells Access Hollywood she has newfound "compassion for anyone who has ever had to go through anything so terrifying."

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My thoughts on this article:

--More positive publicity for the crew and jetBlue itself.
--A little overdramatic of Miss Manning (never personally heard of her)? I think it's cheap, but I'm betting these "stars'" publicists are booking them (for a fee) for them to "recount their experiences"
--jetBlue is the prefered airline of B-list celebs
(though Conan O'Brien, who I consider A-list, admitted to being on a jetBlue redeye, only to have his show come on the screen and his neighbor doing a double take between his screen and the tall goofy red-head sitting next to him ^)