The aftermath of today's incident at Newark International. Thankfully, there were no injuries. Photo: Craig Maternowski - OPShots Contributor
A passenger plane with landing gear problems skidded down the runway at Newark Liberty Airport Monday evening, the chin of the plane scraping the tarmac before all aboard exited without injuries, authorities said.
The 6:22 p.m. arrival of United Express Flight 5124 shut down the airport for nearly an hour. Two of the three runways reopened at 7:15 p.m., according to the Port Authority, which operates the airport.
It was not clear Monday night whether anyone from Long Island was aboard the aircraft.
The Atlanta-to-Newark flight was operated by United’s regional contractor, Shuttle America, and as the plane approached Newark its crew could not confirm that the nose gear had deployed, said Peter Kowalchuk, Shuttle America spokesman.
“That nose gear is not down,” the tower radioed to the aircraft’s pilot. “You got no nose gear.”
“After receiving confirmation from Newark air traffic control that the nose gear was not down, the crew declared an emergency, prepared the cabin and safely landed,” Kowalchuk said.
