MD-80 makes emergency landing

February 21, 2000 ] Web posted at: 6:51 PM EST (2351 GMT)

SOUTH BEND, Indiana (CNN) -- A Continental Airlines MD-80 with 145 people aboard made an emergency landing here Monday following a sudden drop in altitude the crew attributed to a trim problem with a wing flap. Nobody was injured. Flight 1416 was headed to Cleveland from Las Vegas carrying 140 passengers and a crew of five, Continental said. It landed at South Bend at 3:28 p.m. Another plane was sent to South Bend to take the passengers to Cleveland, said Continental spokesman Ned Walker in Houston. Tom Kenney, regional spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration in Chicago, said the crew reported aileron trim problems and asked for permission to land in South Bend. The aileron is a movable wing flap that can be used to control the plane's rolling and banking movements. "We'll do a complete inspection of the aircraft now and we'll report our findings to the FAA," said Walker, the Continental spokesman. Walker said the plane was "fully compliant with FAA airworthiness directives" issued February 11 as a result of the Alaska Airlines crash off the southern California coast January 31 that killed all 88 people aboard.

Link

http://www.cnn.com/2000/US/02/21/md80.landing/index.html

-- Carl Jenkins (Somewherepress@aol.com), February 21, 2000