Landing Gear Emergency Forces Down Another Jetliner

(Sept. 29) -- The same landing gear glitch that forced an airliner to make a miracle landing in New York last weekend has prompted another emergency landing in Milwaukee, and federal regulators are investigating the mishaps.

Montreal-based Bombardier Inc. built the CRJ twin-engine jetliner that made an emergency landing Saturday at JFK airport after its landing gear malfunctioned. An announcement in the cabin to "brace for impact" could be heard on video taken by a passenger and sparks could be seen flying from the plane's wing as it dragged along the tarmac, but none of the 64 people aboard was hurt.

An eerily similar landing happened Tuesday in Milwaukee, when another CRJ plane flying from Omaha was forced to land with only two of its three sets of landing gear activated.

"You could hear them try to put the landing gear down about four or five times," passenger Terry Berg told CBS News. The pilot then circled the Milwaukee airport several times as ground crews rushed to prepare for potential disaster.

The Skywest flight managed to complete a scraping landing, and all 36 passengers and three crew members deplaned safely, a spokeswoman for Mitchell International Airport told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

The New York landing was a Delta flight operated by Atlantic Southeast Airlines. But both planes were made by Bombardier, whose fleet of CRJ aircraft are manufactured as short-hop commuter planes that often take off and land as many as seven times a day.

The company's CRJ jets have been involved in at least five landing gear problems in the past two years, according to Federal Aviation Administration records excerpted by The Associated Press.

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In December 2008, a Mesa Airlines CRJ landed safely in Chicago after trouble with its landing gear. About six months later, an Atlantic Southeast Airlines CRJ couldn't extend its left landing gear but managed to land safely in Atlanta. And in May of this year, another Skywest CRJ failed to extend its nose landing gear but still landed safely in California.

Asked about whether the list of problems raised concerns, Bombardier spokesman Marc Duchesne told the AP: "Absolutely not."

"The aircraft has logged more than 27 million flight hours and more than 22 million takeoff and landing cycles. So these are very good and reliable aircraft," Bombardier also told CBS News.

The National Transportation Safety Board and the FAA are investigating the landing gear failures and whether they're linked, The Toronto Sun reported.