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It was a frightful flight for passengers on board a Delta jet headed for Salt Lake City Tuesday. The plane had to turn around shortly after takeoff in New York. The passengers knew something was wrong when they heard a loud bang and the plane shook on takeoff.
As the plane descended, crew members inside were yelling at passengers to brace themselves. Anyone who flies can only imagine the horror of hearing those words, knowing there's something wrong with the plane and realizing there is nothing you can do but say a prayer and hold on.
Flight 141, originally bound for Salt Lake, made a slow but not so steady descent toward the runway at JFK International. The pilot flying the Boeing 737-800 landed skewed a little left, because a tire blew on the right side during takeoff.
In video of the landing, you can see debris fly and sparks ignite as the aircraft touches ground.
Daniel Rona, a Salt Lake City resident who was on the plane, said it was, "Noisy, wobbly because of that bad tire. But the captain and crew were just sensational." He was one of 167 passengers and crew members on board the plane. "They took their time and had everything worked out. It really worked out super," he said.
Rona, still on the plane, looked out his window once the plane came to a stop and described what he saw, saying, "Emergency cars with flashing lights, the fire trucks came and immediately began a thermal image of the tire to see what kind of heat buildup there was."
With no threat of fire and no one hurt, the passengers climbed down the staircases and headed for buses nearby, but not before cheering on the pilots who safely brought them down to the ground.
"It's pretty exciting to see the professionals and how they manage this whole thing. It really went well," Rona said.
Rona is a tour guide to Israel and has logged 5 million air miles. He says those on board the plane reacted with an incredible sense of calmness. Many of those passengers are on board a different aircraft that Delta provided and are back in the air right now, headed for Salt Lake City. Many of those passengers boarded a different Delta aircraft and arrived at Salt Lake International around 4 a.m. Wednesday.
E-mail: lprichard@ksl.com
