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Breaking News

Landing Gear Stuck on Single-Engine Cessna

Aired August 27, 2001 - 13:01   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Right now, we want to take you and show you live pictures of a plane that is in trouble. It's landing gear is stuck. It is a single-engine Cessna right near Fort Worth, Texas. The pilot has been trying to get the landing gear unstuck for more than an hour. The plane was diverted from the airport it was trying to land at, which was Addison Airport in suburban north Dallas. Now it's back in Fort Worth.

And we're going to talk with Miles O'Brien, our space correspondent, who is also a pilot.

Miles, this pilot here, is he attempting to bring down right now, it appears?

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN SPACE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Natalie, I think he's gone through just about every option he could to try get the landing gear down. What has been going on, he's been circling...

WATERS: He's been going back up.

O'BRIEN: Appears to be going back up. Maybe he was not comfortable with the approach speed that he had right there. It's very critical on a belly landing that when you come in, you come in very close to what is called the stall speed. And when I say stall speed, pilots will know what I'm talking about. That's the speed at which by the wings -- the air is not moving fast enough over the wing for the plane to fly.

We're going to bring it down over the runway, and just as you get -- you have the runway made, you want to increase your flaps, as the control surfaces that allow the plane to fly slower, to the maximum, which allows you to fly at slowest possible speed. And then you're going to just slowly brink down on to pavement at that slow speed. Obviously, the faster you go, the more damage you might potentially cause that aircraft.

The other thing you want to be simultaneously doing is when you do a belly landing, there's a mixture ball on the throttle, which allows the fuel to go into the carburetor in the engine. You want to pull that to the full lean position, so there's no more fuel going into the engine. And then at the same time, kill your electrical system. All that reduces the possibility of a fire occurring.

What's been happening prior to... KAGAN: Miles, we've got more breaking new. We're going to get back with you and this plane as it attempts another landing.

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