An Aer Lingus passenger plane made an emergency landing at Kennedy Airport Monday evening after reporting hydraulic failure. The landing gear reportedly ignited into a fire, but all passengers are said to be safe.
The plane, a Boeing 757, took off for Shannon, Ireland around 7 p.m. Monday night and immediately reported hydraulic failure, including issues with the landing gear door and unresponsive flaps. It turned around and prepared for an emergency landing at JFK.
Having just taken off, the excess weight of the fuel on the plane may have put additional strain on the landing gear in addition to the possibility of the hydraulic brake line malfunctioning, causing the landing gear to ignite into a fire which was subsequently extinguished by emergencies responders.
All passengers are reported to be safe with no injuries, and were bussed back to the terminal by Port Authority.
We’ll keep you updated.
10:10 PM:
Post updated for clarity.
6:00 AM:
The pilot, Captain Paul Dowling, reportedly told Air Traffic Control “We do have technical issues here - we lost our hydraulic system, one hydraulic system so we are going to have to return to Kennedy at some stage, not quite yet. I would like you to inform Kennedy that we have lost hydraulic fluid and it may be dumped on the runway; we’re not sure.”
The airline arranged for all 110 passengers to take a different plane, which left at about 10 PM.