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'Hell' on JetBlue Flight Over Vegas

Hydraulic system fails on Airbus A320, plane circles for hours

By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff

Posted Jun 20, 2012 8:48 AM CDT

(Newser) – Be glad that you were not on Sunday's JetBlue flight from Las Vegas to New York, which one passenger describes as "four hours of hell." The plane's hydraulic system failed, causing it to careen from side to side and go into dizzying turns, and the passengers' descriptions of the flight may cause you never to board a plane again: "People were getting sick. Some people were throwing up. There were a lot of people getting nauseous," one passenger tells the New York Post.

The passengers knew something was wrong immediately after takeoff, when "you could hear a screeching—an obvious mechanical screeching," the passenger adds. The pilots declared an emergency and informed Las Vegas controllers. But here's the to-make-matters-worse detail: The Airbus A320 can't dump excess fuel. In order to safely land, it had to burn off the bulk of its stash—by circling the area. None of the 155 passengers screamed, but "there were definitely people reacting out loud," says another passenger. "The plane kind of felt out of control."

A JetBlue Airbus A320 aircraft is shown.
A JetBlue Airbus A320 aircraft is shown.   (PRNewsFoto/JetBlue Airways, Mark Greenberg)
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Look at me—I’m smiling. If I was scared, you would know it. If I’m not scared, you don’t need to be. - What one flight attendant told passengers, according to passenger Tom Mizer

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COMMENTS
Showing 3 of 14 comments
Mia
Jun 20, 2012 6:17 PM CDT
Why not spend the 4 hours flying to new york??
Ghille
Jun 20, 2012 4:15 PM CDT
"There were a lot of people getting nauseous," one passenger tells the New York Post.  " ....getting "nauseated" ...sorry, speech police jumped right out of me at this one! If you are feeling ill....you feel nauseated...if you are making others feel ill..you are nauseous!  Folks seem to think "nauseous" sounds classier than "nauseated" but, the meaning is definately different for the two terms. So, please, if you wind up in a "rock'n' roll" airbus and are feeling ill...tell me you are nauseated and I will hand you a bag...if you tell me you are nauseous I will place the bag over your head to prevent you making other passengers nauseated.  K?  K! .....just saying...I'll put my little soap box away again...
Beanburger
Jun 20, 2012 4:07 PM CDT
When you fly you are being a little bit evil so it's only fair if you spend sometime in hell.
 

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