[Fair use for education and research purpose only]

Friday, March 31, 2000

Title: Plane makes emergency landing at A.C. Airport

By DONALD WITTKOWSKI Staff Writer, (609) 272-7258

EGG HARBOR TOWNSHIP -- An American Eagle commuter flight carrying 26 passengers and crew made an emergency landing at Atlantic City International Airport on Wednesday because of a cracked windshield.

Flight 130 was traveling from New York's Kennedy International Airport to Reagan Washington National Airport when it encountered problems.

"It made a very precautionary landing at Atlantic City," Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Eliot Brenner said. "No injuries were involved. It was pretty routine."

Authorities didn't know how the windshield became cracked on the twin-engine Saab 340, a small commuter plane.

"We don't have a formal report on this yet," Brenner said of the FAA's investigation. "Everything is still very preliminary."

Passengers were bused to Washington after the plane landed at about 5:30 p.m. The windshield was repaired Thursday morning.

The emergency landing occurred about an hour before the runway lights went out after a circuit breaker tripped and had to be reset, airport spokesman Peter Hartt said.

During the outage, three Spirit Airlines flights headed to Atlantic City were diverted to Philadelphia, Baltimore and Myrtle Beach, S.C. They continued on to Atlantic City after the runway lights came back on.

"All of the flights were delayed," Hartt said. "They all diverted to another airport until the situation was resolved."

A Spirit flight to Cleveland and two casino charter flights leaving Atlantic City also were delayed by the outage, which happened between 6:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.

The airport has struggled for more than two years with an antiquated runway lighting system that dates to the 1950s. The South Jersey Transportation Authority, the airport's operating agency, plans to install a new lighting system when it starts a $12 million rehabilitation of the main, 10,000-foot runway later this year.

http://www.pressplus.com/content/fri/ojg36710.html

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-- (Dee360Degree@aol.com), March 31, 2000