There are early reports of an emergency landing at Newark Liberty International Airport shortly after 9 this morning. WABC reported that United Airlines flight 634, arriving at Newark from Chicago, had issues with its landing gear and was forced to make an emergency landing. The flight, from Chicago's O'Hare Airport had a scheduled departure of 6:01 AM and had 53 passengers. Twitter user Debbie Frank updates, "On runway. Newark just closed. Another aircraft with bad landing- mechanical issues. Emergency vehicles. Zero idea just how bad." Jim Hoffer of WABC says it was a right wing landing gear issue and that an air traffic controller says there were no injuries, but the emergency exit chutes were deployed. The plane, an Airbus A319 apparently arrived just 15 minutes late, if not at the actual gate. At this time, it's unclear why the landing gear failed.
And in a coup for MSNBC, their creative director Marc Greenstein, was actually on the flight from Chicago. He told the network that that passengers were calm after they were made aware of the situation, the landing was suprisingly smooth and passengers exiting the plane after the landing was also smooth. Unfortunately, he doesn't have his luggage yet.
It was just last Sunday when the airport was shut down because of a security scare. The trespasser in the incident last week, Haisong Jiang, was charged and released yesterday.
