Passengers Credit Pilot For Safe Landing At Tulsa International Airport

There were 137 passengers, plus crew, on the plane that circled the airport before being able to land. A number of passengers on that plane said all the credit goes to the pilots.

Wednesday, May 14th 2014, 10:57 pm

By: News On 6


The passengers and crew aboard American Airlines flight 1461 faced tense moments Wednesday afternoon after the plane lost its computer system.

The flight, from Little Rock to Dallas, diverted to Tulsa International Airport in order to make a safe landing.

There were 137 passengers, plus crew, on the plane that circled the airport before being able to land. A number of passengers on that plane said all the credit goes to the pilots.

5/14/2014 Related Story: American Airlines Jet Makes Emergency Landing At Tulsa International Airport

The images from Osage SkyNews 6 show the American Airlines MD80 circling Tulsa. Close to 150 were on board, Lynda Youngers was one of them.

"They kept calm. Everyone stayed calm and they just took care of it. Really, a lot of credit goes to the pilot he did it all manually so it was good," Youngers said.

Other passengers said they knew something was wrong when the plane made a hard turn.

"They took over manually flying the plane, that's all we really knew, but it did change direction abruptly," passenger Steve Munson said.

Munson said, for the most part, everyone on board trusted the crew's abilities.

"I think we were pretty confident it was going okay. It was when they did fly by to check landing gear, I think we were a little concerned at that point, but beyond that I guess we weren't so concerned," he said.

With the pilot flying manually, and the okay from the control tower regarding landing gear, flight 1461 began its descent towards the main runway.

Passengers said it was rough as the plane landed, but once on the ground, emergency crews checked it thoroughly while passengers waited on board until the plane was towed to the gate.

"Everyone was pretty calm. They did a good job . No one was really concerned over it. I guess we thought we were in good hands," Munson said. "It's always nice to come down safely."

Youngers decided to drive the rest of the way to Dallas and Munson rented a car as well, and headed to Sioux Falls, a nine hour drive. The rest of the passengers boarded a flight headed to Dallas around 5 p.m., Wednesday.

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