- CNN reporting that a tornado is moving toward Minneapolis-St. Paul.

- Jet Blue Flight 292 is having landing gear problems and is circling around Long Beach, CA airport. *919pm EDT update* Plane has landed safely, thank goodness. Good piloting.

Gathering info…

***

More on the crippled plane via AP:

A JetBlue airliner with faulty landing gear was headed for an emergency landing Wednesday at Los Angeles International Airport after its front wheels were turned sideways and unable to retract into the plane following takeoff from a nearby airport.

The plane carrying 139 passengers left Bob Hope Airport in Burbank at 3:17 p.m. for New York’s JFK airport, said JetBlue spokesman Bryan Baldwin.

JetBlue flight 292 first circled the Long Beach Airport, about 30 miles south of Burbank, and then was cleared to land at Los Angeles International Airport, said LAX spokeswoman Nancy Castles. In between, the Airbus A320 dumped fuel over the Pacific, said Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Donn Walker.

Earlier at Long Beach Airport, six ambulances lined a runway, along with a handful of police cars and two fire engines.

***
More on the bad weather in Minnesota (via WaPo):

There were two unconfirmed reports of tornado touchdowns on Wednesday evening as a severe thunderstorm pushed through parts of central and east-central Minnesota, pelting the area with hail and knocking down trees in its path.

The storm included straight-line winds with gusts up to 70 mph.

There were two reports of tornado touchdowns: a trained weather spotter reported a touchdown in Atwater at 6:15 p.m., and a member of the public reported a tornado touchdown in Brooklyn Park about an hour later. Neither reports could be verified until a damage survey could be completed, said Beau Gjerdingen, of the National Weather Service.

There were also numerous reports of funnel clouds throughout the metro area and surrounding suburbs.

comments (0)   trackbacks (23)