SAN DIEGO — San Diego International Airport returned to normal operations Thursday after a small plane's landing gear malfunction Wednesday night caused an hours-long ground stop that led to widespread flight delays and cancellations.
The Federal Aviation Administration said a Cessna Citation X model 750 experienced difficulty with its landing gear while attempting to take off around 5:41 p.m. Wednesday.
The nose gear collapsed, leaving the private jet stranded on the runway.
While no one was injured in the incident, the malfunction had a domino effect on air travel that lasted well into Thursday.
Passengers told ABC 10News: "I spent two hours on the phone trying to get my flights corrected," said one stranded passenger." A seconder passenger said, "They said there's a small plane crashed on the highway...now we have to find a ride to LAX." A third passenger said: "By the time I got back to the airport, they said they were already booked."
Airport officials said it took nearly four hours before they could reopen the airport's only runway. The runway was back open by
"We anticipate things getting better as the day moves forward," Larisa Casillas, spokesperson for San Diego International Airport said. "We're currently in a ground delay...that's when they space out the departing plane. That's controlled by the FAA that's their call. Once we get out of that, we will resume operations normally."
Video taken by a passenger at the airport showed the aircraft's compromised position on the runway. FAA reports confirmed the nose gear had collapsed in their initial report here.
"The landing gear handles the weight of the entire airplane," said Captain Bob Katz, a commercial airline pilot who reviewed audio exchanges between the tower and other aircraft during the incident.
Katz noted how close the situation came to being much worse, referencing tower communications that showed another aircraft nearly encountered the disabled plane as it was cleared to take off.
"By the grace of God, [the traffic controller] noticed the Transcon was stuck on the runway," Katz said, adding she had not been notified by the pilot yet of the gear malfunction, per the audio recording.
When asked about San Diego's airport layout and how one aircraft can cause such widespread disruption, Katz pointed to the facility's unique challenges.
"Due to the fact that one primary runway shares with both arrivals and departures at the same time is just an accident waiting to happen," Katz said.
