London: 757 carrying Manchester Soccer Team Plunges without Warning--Computer Blamed ----------------------------------------------------------------------

Tuesday March 7, 1:34 AM

Airline plays down Man United "mid-air scare"

LONDON (Reuters) - An airline on Tuesday played down newspaper reports of a mid-air scare involving the Manchester United soccer team. Several newspapers said the players were shaken when the Boeing 757 taking the European champions to France on Monday ahead of their Champions League clash with Bordeaux plunged suddenly and without warning. The two teams meet on Tuesday night.

Monarch Airlines said there was a minor glitch with a back-up computer system monitoring the plane's landing gear but insisted there had been no danger and that the aircraft had not lost height.

"The aircraft didn't lose any height at all and at no time was the safety of the passengers or the aircraft at risk. The vast majority of passengers did not even notice anything had happened," a Monarch spokeswoman told Reuters.

She said the pilot noticed that a warning light had not gone out and lowered and raised the landing gear to correct the problem. The pilot then explained to passengers over the aircraft's public address system what had happened, the spokeswoman said.

The newspapers said the incident occurred 20 minutes after the flight to Bordeaux took off from Manchester. The Sun quoted one of its sports reporters, who was on the flight, as saying: "It was a scary few moments. There was a loud rumbling from under the plane and you felt your ears pop."

The Manchester club is still haunted by the memory of the 1958 Munich air disaster in which 23 people, including eight players from manager Matt Busby's talented young side nicknamed the "Busby Babes", were killed.

-- (crosspost@here.now), March 07, 2000

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