SEATTLE — “Sparks! There are sparks!”
Passengers yelled as Alaska Airlines flight 1288 experienced an issue with its landing gear as it touched down at John Wayne Airport in Orange County, California on Sunday night.
“When we landed it just felt like the left side of the plane slammed onto the runway,” said Beth Tilford, who was on the plane.
Tilford said the flight departed from Seattle 45 minutes late and was trying to make up time as John Wayne has an 11 p.m. curfew.
“And I was seated right next to the left side engine and that’s where it happened. So it felt like a big bang and I looked over and it felt like there were sparks,” said Tilford.
Alaska Airlines in a statement said it "experienced an issue soon after landing safely" and that all 106 passengers and six crew members were safe.
“Alaska and the passengers on board were very lucky that this was not worse and no fire erupted because once you get a fire, all bets are off,” said Aviation Consultant Scott Hamilton.
Hamilton said there have been similar accidents that caused a fire with passenger casualties.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is currently investigating this accident and will be able to point to a cause. Hamilton said one factor the NTSB could look at is the flight path.
“There was an increase in speed at the part of the flight before the actual last descent,” said Hamilton.
The same descent approach from flight radar from the next day didn’t show a similar increase. It was instead a steady decline.
“Why did the accident aircraft show an increase in airspeed? We don’t know. We just know that there was an increase in airspeed," said Hamilton.
Tilford mentioned she noticed an increase in speed as well.
“As we were landing, it seemed like we were coming in a little fast, but nothing crazy,” Tilford said.
Another potential factor was the weather as Tropical Storm Hilary dumped rain.
“There was heavy rain falling. We had decreased visibility," said KING 5 Meteorologist Leah Pezzetti. "That can go hand in hand and we did see some strong winds in the hour before and after that landing."
Wind shear could also impact the plane's landing, but as John Wayne Airport has a curfew, it said over the phone that the tower was closed during the time the flight landed. Therefore, flight conditions were not recorded.
While it was a scary experience for those on board, Tilford said emergency crews did an amazing job at making people feel safe.
“Everyone handled it professionally from the flight crew to the grounds crew coming on," Tilford said. "Everyone was polite and making sure we were all okay.”