7 Escape Burning Plane After LAX Landing

A crippled Lear jet made an emergency, belly-flop landing at Los Angeles International Airport on Thursday, then burst into flames after a mile-long skid.

Five passengers and two pilots escaped the wreck unharmed. Several of them sprinted out a bulkhead door as firefighters doused the burning plane with fire-retardant foam.

“They were shook up, but there were no injuries,” Los Angeles Fire Battalion Chief Michael Reagan said of the plane’s occupants. “It was actually a real good conclusion to what could have been a real tragedy.”

Airport officials said one of four main runways at LAX was closed for more than six hours.

The emergency landing was under investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board. An agency spokesman said the accident was believed to have been caused by a landing gear failure that stemmed from electrical problems.

Jeff Rich, a supervisor for the agency’s Los Angeles regional office whose agents interviewed the plane’s occupants, said their names were not available for release.

“I have investigators on the scene right now. They have more important things to do than find out who the occupants were,” Rich said.

The Lear 55 jet is owned by IMP Inc. of Rancho Santa Fe, a suburb of San Diego.

The flight originated out of San Diego at an undisclosed time and was bound for Van Nuys Airport, said Nancy Castles, a spokeswoman at LAX. As a result of the wreck, several approaching flights were delayed as air traffic controllers diverted jumbo jets to one of the airport’s three remaining runways, Castles said.

Controllers became aware of the problem about 8:50 a.m., when the pilot of the executive jet radioed that he was having electrical problems. Controllers immediately cleared a runway. The pilot made a low pass over the airfield, allowing controllers to confirm visually that the landing gear had failed to deploy properly.

The damaged plane circled the airport once before the pilot approached the runway a second time. Firetrucks scrambled to the scene.

Reagan said his fire crew of 40 had only six minutes between the four-alarm bell at 8:52 a.m. and the plane’s touchdown.

A Fox television crew taped the event, showing what at first appeared to be a smooth, controlled, wheels-up landing.

But the plane began to skid sideways. A pair of 200-meter-long skid marks traced the start of the turn, which ended with the nose of the plane pointed toward where the landing had begun.