Plane passenger tells of landing ordeal

A passenger has told of his 90 minute air ordeal after the captain announced he was unsure whether the wheels had come down for landing.

Kenneth Skates, 24, says he did not know whether he was going to live or die when the pilot walked down the aisle and lifted up the carpet to try to lower the landing gear by hand.

He says one terrified passenger tried to call his loved ones on his mobile telephone and others prayed when they were told to brace themselves for a crash landing. Problems on the EasyJet flight began on its approach to Liverpool airport after a flight from Amsterdam.

Mr Skates, a reporter, who had been on a short break, says he knew there was something wrong when they started to circle Liverpool airport. He said: "The captain said there was a problem and a light which indicates that the landing gear has not come down was on.

"He came into the passenger cabin and pulled up the carpet to find the manual workings for the wheels but he didn't find it. He went back into the cockpit and said we would now have to make an emergency landing and could people assume the crash position."

He added: "People were starting to get hysterical and as we came into land they then said we were now going to go to Manchester instead.

"On the way the captain kept rolling the plane from side to side and bouncing it to try to get the wheels down. It was like really bad turbulence. Just as we were about to land in Manchester I heard a noise and someone shouted brace, brace, brace.

"As soon as we touched down we knew the wheels were there because it was a soft landing. It was quite an ordeal knowing that the odds were stacked against you for an hour and half before landing."

Mr Skates says fellow passengers were terrified and a number were hysterical but Liverpudlians on board lived up to their comic reputation and told jokes to keep spirits up. "It's too early to say whether I have been put off flying," said Mr Skates. Statistically it's unlikely to happen to me again. I also have family in America and don't fancy spending all that time on a boat."

A spokesman for Manchester's airport police said upon landing nothing was found to be wrong with the landing gear. There was no one available at EasyJet to comment.

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-- Doris (nocents@bellsouth.net), November 27, 2000