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Nike Corporate Jet Having Landing Gear Troubles

Aired November 21, 2005 - 13:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: A Nike corporate jet started to have landing gear problems shortly after leaving Hillsboro Airport, as it was -- now it's trying to -- well, it was trying to make an emergency landing at the nearby Portland International Airport, but it developed landing gear problems and has been circling the airport trying to figure out, of course, trouble-shoot, if they can get the gear down or if they'll be able to come in and make a belly landing.
Seven people onboard that jet. Names have not been released yet, so we're continuing to follow these live pictures.

Tony Harris working the story, working information for us from our newsroom right now. Tony, I can -- it's sort of foggy, the picture there. Is that the aircraft that just came down?

TONY HARRIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: No, we don't have...

PHILLIPS: That's a different one.

HARRIS: That's a different one. This is still -- our understanding, Kyra, is that the airport is still open. We are seeing planes take off and land at the airport so the airport, to our knowledge, is still open.

We understand that there is a plan being worked out now to close the airport and close some of the surrounding access roads, as well, so that is a plan that is still being worked out. And we're continuing to follow that development.

But as you mentioned, this is a plane that took off 9:30 -- is this it, Kyra? Is this what we're seeing right now? OK. That's still the situation where we don't know if that is the exact plane.

But we have, as you mentioned, Kyra, a couple affiliates in the Portland area, in the air right now with their helicopters, KGW and KPTV. Both of those affiliate stations have their choppers in the air to give us a view of this, and they have not made, is my understanding, a bird's eye identification of the particular plane that we're talking about, the plane that is having some problems right now with its landing gear.

We don't have -- we don't have a positive I.D. of the plane as yet. They have not made that kind of contact.

Bonnie Schneider is also with us now. She is looking at the situation, because we can see, just from the picture from KGW, that there are some clouds in the area. What can you tell us about conditions, Bonnie?

BONNIE SCHNEIDER, CNN METEOROLOGIST: ... minutes. The airport visibility has been reported to go on the decrease. Now we have visibility less than a half mile. This is just in. And there are just broken clouds reported.

Winds are out of the west/northwest at about eight miles per hour but fog certainly being reported. But when you look at our weather computer, you can see some areas around the airport are already reporting sunshine. When you look at the pictures there, you can see the sun is desperately trying to break through the clouds and really evaporate some of that fog.

But currently, visibility is very limited at the airport, with less than a half mile reporting broken clouds. We are anticipating the forecast to improve for Portland. Temperatures will be in the mid-50s, and the sun will come out, according to our three-day forecast. It's actually supposed to be a nice day there, despite the fact that it's getting off to a foggy start.

We also are under concern for the area of Portland for air stagnation, meaning there's going to be a lot of pollutants in the air but unrelated to any weather problems they're having. Now, the big concern weather-wise is fog, with visibility limited to less than half a mile at present at the Portland International Airport -- Tony.

HARRIS: Look at that. OK, Bonnie.

Just to sort of recap as we work these pictures from our affiliates in Portland, KGW and KPTV -- we'll go back and forth between those two stations and their shots -- and they have up in their helicopters. We have a Gulfstream V private jet owned by Nike, seven on board, including the crew and passengers.

We understand that the plane has been in the air since about 9:30 a.m. local time, and it is having problems with its landing gear right now. We understand that the pilot is at this moment burning off some jet fuel before attempting that landing. And we're going to continue to follow this situation.

Once, again, this is a situation that we saw, Kyra, just maybe last week. I guess it was last Wednesday here in the Atlanta area where a twin engine plane made a successful belly landing at the Charlie Brown Field, I believe it was, here in Atlanta, and that we're probably looking at a similar situation here, where the pilot is going to burn off some fuel and then shut off the engines and then attempt to make that belly landing, because the landing gear at this point is inoperable -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: And as you can imagine, it takes a lot of disciplined training and mental discipline in order to do that kind of landing, Tony, and General Don Shepherd, retired Air Force, on the line with us now.

Shep, I don't know if you've ever had to make an emergency landing of all the times that you've been airborne, but we did see that landing last week, very successful, thank goodness, no sparks or explosions, and the pilot was able to bring that plane down without a problem. Have you ever been in a situation like this, I mean, personally?

GEN. DON SHEPHERD (RET.), AIR FORCE: Yes.

PHILLIPS: You have?

SHEPHERD: Yes, of course, I have, Kyra. Many times. Most pilots that fly a lot have had landing gear problems.

I want to bring you a couple things. I've flown the Gulfstream V. I know about the airplane. It's a very safe corporate airplane. Two engine jet with the jets -- with the engines back on the tail. Passenger capacity normally, you know, in a corporate style around 13 people, so this is about half full.

It appears what took place -- is what's being reported is they had landing gear difficulty after takeoff. What that probably means is normally when you land, you have three green lights or indicators that show you the gear is down. So when you take off and you raise the landing gear handle, those lights go out or indicate up.

If one of them does not indicate up for any particular reason, you don't start messing around with the gear. You usually get a visual check and say, "Hey, is part of my landing gear out still or not/"

If it is out, the next step is then to start burning off fuel, thinking about the weather, thinking about where you're going to land when you put this thing down. And then you get out the manuals. You call the company headquarters and you start thinking, OK, what do we do next?

First of all, you may try to recycle the gear. Well, what you want to do is get it down. You don't want to play with getting -- excuse me -- with getting it up and getting it stuck up. You want to get it all the way down. You can use the normal mechanism, the handle, to get it all the way down so they may try that again.

Secondly, you can use a blow-down bottle in many of these airplanes, and I can't remember if the Gulfstream V has a blow-down bottle.

PHILLIPS: What's a blow-down bottle? What's a blow-down bottle?

SHEPHERD: A blow-down bottle is just compressed air that basically you turn the handle on a blow-down bottle, and it blows the gear down.

PHILLIPS: OK.

SHEPHERD: So in other words, if a mechanical linkage has failed or electrical linkage this is a high pressure air that blows it down and locks it in place.

And then another way is to mechanically crank it down. Now, what you want to do as a pilot is, if at all possible get all three gear down. If you can't get all three down, you have a nose gear problem, you will probably land with the two mains down. If you have one main gear up, you have a choice between lifting them all up if you can get them all up and bellying the airplane in or you have a choice of just landing on two gear with the nose gear and one of your main gear.

All of this can be done and can be -- and can -- normally can keep the airplane on the runway. Your concern is don't run off in the soft dirt and cause the airplane to cartwheel.

But generally speaking, it looks to me like the weather is going to be no problem. They can make an instrument approach. They can land. And they've got emergency fire equipment on the bases.

PHILLIPS: And Shep, just explain to our viewers how pilots are able to do this without the belly of the aircraft literally blowing up, because you think of the speed, you think of it coming down without landing gear.

SHEPHERD: Yes.

PHILLIPS: I'm just saying if they don't get the landing gear down. You know, explain -- explain to viewers how they have to get rid of the fuel.

SHEPHERD: Yes.

PHILLIPS: And then how an aircraft is able to, you know, handle that type of speed and pressure without exploding.

SHEPHERD: Right, well, first of all, he's probably going to be able to get the gear down. I doubt seriously we'll see a belly landing or a retracted gear landing, but you could.

All right. Basically, what you do, there's two ways to get rid of fuel. One is you can jettison the fuel if the airplane has a jettison system. I do not believe the Gulfstream V has -- he's just going to be burning it off.

What you want to do is get down to lower weights on fuel so you're not carrying a lot of fuel, so if anything happened that the plane broke apart you wouldn't have a big fire fueled by a lot of fuel on board. So you would logically burn off fuel.

Now, the next thing is, whether you belly the airplane in or land with part of the gear down, you are probably going to see sparks as metal contacts the runway. So, again, sparks can set off fuel. That's why you want to be low on fuel, if you can.

But just bellying an airplane in, you normally don't get a fire from bellying an airplane in. What you'll see is sparks. The fire department there can rapidly come in and spray down the foam around the airplane and keep a fire from breaking out. So this is not, you know, it's not what you want to have happen, but this is not a hugely alarming situation, as we know about it now.

PHILLIPS: Shep, does every pilot during training actually have to simulate one of those belly landings?

SHEPHERD: Not only do you have to simulate the belly landing but you simulate every known gear problem. You know, you simulate just the nose gear down. You simulate which you normally would belly in with the nose gear down. You simulate nose gear up which lands the main gear down. You simulate it with one main gear down, the others up, and you simulate it with, you know, with the nose gear and one of the main gear down.

So this is a normal part of training that everybody goes through, and you almost never have to exercise -- I've never had to belly an airplane in. I've landed with many gear emergencies and they all turned out OK.

PHILLIPS: So what I'm seeing here, according to the communications and media relations manager at the FAA, the northwest mountain Alaska regions, apparently this started when the door didn't completely close. So they recycled the gear making the gear go back and down, or go back down and then back up again.

And when it was coming back up, that's when the gear got stuck. So the understanding is that gear got stuck at about a 45-degree angle. So it's just a matter, like you said of just being able to nudge it so it can get all the way -- lodge it all the way out, right?

SHEPHERD: Yes, exactly. You want to get it all the way out so it's all the way extended and, again, you can do that with air. You can do it with mechanical crank-downs if the airplane has those. You can also try G-forces, in other words, putting it in a tight turn to try to jar it down.

PHILLIPS: Unlock it, yes.

SHEPHERD: Another possibility.

PHILLIPS: So what do you think? Is it possible that maybe -- I know we can't get a real good visual on that aircraft right now, but is it possible that the pilot is trying to time it out, you know, fuel-wise versus all those, I guess, checks and balances, looking for all those options to get the landing gear down. And last option, of course, is, OK, here we go?

SHEPHERD: Yes, exactly. That's exactly what he's doing. He's sitting there. Doesn't want to burn off all of his fuel. The lower altitude you're at, you circle low altitude, you use more fuel. So he doesn't want to use up all of the fuel before he goes through all of the options to try to get those down.

So he's balancing time and fuel remaining against -- trying various ways to get the gear down. And if he can't get it down then he will get plenty of advice and talk to various people about, OK, here's the situation. This is the angle. This is our gear problem on which gear, what's the best way to do this? And he'll make his decision. PHILLIPS: All right. Retired Major General Don Shepherd, just stay with us for a second. I'm going to recap for our viewers.

If you're just tuning in, these live pictures coming to us from our affiliate there in Portland, Oregon, KGW. A Nike corporate jet that developed landing gear problems shortly after leaving Hillsboro Airport within the past hour was getting ready to make an emergency landing and still don't know if they'll have to make that emergency landing or not.

That's what we're waiting to see. Because seven people on board this jet. Names have not been released yet. We're told that the landing gear of this Gulfstream V failed to fully retract after taking off from the Hillsboro Airport. The plane was heading to Toronto.

And so what you can see now is the pilot is continuing to circle the Portland airport, trying to burn fuel to reduce the risk of fire when the plane does land.

And General Shepherd, once again, you're explaining that there are a number of options that pilot is probably trying to deal with right now to just unlock that gear so it can fully extend. It's at about 45 degrees right now. But you want to get it at -- what's the exact degree that you want to get it for landing?

SHEPHERD: Well, they all come out -- the nose gear comes down 90 degrees. And the main gear folds out to 90, so you want them straight down right below the airplane at 90 degrees below the airplane, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: OK. And of course, you've been through this before. I mean, do you start getting chills and the hair just starts to, you know, raise on your arms there? I mean, kind of take me -- obviously you want to stay mentally focused and not panic. I mean, all aviators go through the training to learn not to panic in situations like this, whether it's in the water or whether it's airborne.

But mentally what do you go through? And tell me what it was like for you to go through this and concentrate on bringing that aircraft down safely. Especially, you've got seven people on board.

SHEPHERD: Yes, exactly. And I tell you this pilot does not have the hair on his arm raised. He's concerned, but he's a professional pilot, if he's flying that style of airplane. He's got pilot rating and certified by the FAA. He's trained by his company. You've got a professional on board there. You can be assured of that.

And no, he's not afraid. He's trained for this in various ways. Obviously, he's going to be concerned and very, very attentive as he comes -- as he comes down.

And you want everything to go well, but as usual any time you got anything mechanical, electrical, hydraulic, things go wrong on airplanes. And it's just a part of flying airplanes that we go through and train for. And he's going to get this thing down OK. It's a question of what's the best way to do it. And he's thinking, you know, "I'd rather be doing other things right now, en route to my destination, but, gosh, here we go."

PHILLIPS: Then again, we'll see his training in action, indeed. You know, you said you've flown this type of aircraft, the Gulfstream V. You've flown a variety of aircraft. When you've had to take on a situation like this, what type of aircraft were you flying?

SHEPHERD: The gear -- the ones I had gear problems in were all fighter airplanes.

PHILLIPS: OK. So it was your military time.

SHEPHERD: Yes, I was alone or with one other person in the airplane, depending on the model of airplane. And I've had some serious gear problems that turned out OK, you know?

So this is -- these airplanes are designed with this type of thing this mind, and the pilots are trained with this type of thing in mind, to deal with these types of emergencies.

PHILLIPS: How many pounds of fuel does a Gulfstream V usually take, about 20, 20,000?

SHEPHERD: I don't know the number of gallons of fuel on board. The range of this airplane is a long-range airplane, so it carries a lot of fuel, but I can't tell you offer the top of my head how many gallons of fuel it takes. But -- but he'll have a lot of fuel on board if he was going a long way.

PHILLIPS: So, Shep, not only does the pilot have to concentrate on how he or she is going to land this aircraft, but there's another aspect, and that is the six people sitting behind him, unless there's a co-pilot. I'm not sure if there would be or not.

SHEPHERD: Yes.

PHILLIPS: But you've got to keep those folks calm, too.

SHEPHERD: Yes, you've got, on this airplane, normally you have a co-pilot and also some type of flight attendant on board, depending on who's on board and how you've got it configured, how far you were going to go, whether you were going to serve meals.

So basically the pilot will either over the intercom or have the co-pilot or the flight attendant go back and tell these people what's going on board, tell him how he wants them to brace just like in a commercial airliner. We're going to do this as a precaution. We think it's going to come out all right, but let's review our procedures. And he'll tell them what's going on when -- when he's got this all sorted out.

PHILLIPS: I've been looking at these live pictures, and I actually cannot see the aircraft right now. Actually is that it in the middle -- no...

SHEPHERD: You're just looking...

PHILLIPS: We were just looking at sort of a wide shot. Aren't we?

SHEPHERD: Yes. You're not seeing the airport -- the airplane yet at all.

PHILLIPS: The airplane. We saw it a little while ago and now they're obviously -- I don't know -- now they're zooming in on other aircraft. They continue to -- let me ask you about that. I mean, other planes are taking off and landing. You would think in a scenario like this, you would sort of want to cease all operations until that one aircraft safely comes down. But no?

SHEPHERD: No. You don't do that. You can't do that at all. You want to keep commercial air -- what you'll put is you'll put this aircraft in a holding pattern and keep him away from other airplanes, him or her away from other airplanes, just to keep the traffic clear. Give him an area where he can burn off the fuel.

Now the considerations on an airport are, if it's a single runway airport, you know that when the airplane comes down you stand the chance of closing that runway. So you want to be very careful about that if you have other in-bound traffic.

If it has multiple runways, and I don't know whether Portland does or not, if it has multiple runways, then you'll decide, the tower and the airport people will decide which airplane to put them down on so if does not disrupt traffic for long periods of time. And then they'll use the other runway to bring traffic in.

PHILLIPS: What are the rules about dumping fuel? Do you have to be over -- I mean, can you be over anything? Do you have to be at a certain altitude in order to safely...

SHEPHERD: Generally you'd like to do it over water, which you can do out of Portland fairly easily, so it doesn't come down over land.

PHILLIPS: OK.

SHEPHERD: But generally speaking, it dissipates very quickly and you'd normally dump it at reasonable high altitudes like 10,000 feet, just so it doesn't come down in globs over the land, if you will.

PHILLIPS: So this started about half an hour ago -- about 35, maybe 40 minutes ago. How long considering -- because I'm seeing now that they started out with 25,000 pounds of fuel?

SHEPHERD: There you go.

PHILLIPS: Not sure, of course, where they are now. The flight plan had them going to Toronto, Canada. Are we able to sort of cut and paste numbers and figure out how long this could last?

SHEPHERD: No. Again, he could burn off fuel for a couple of hours, Kyra. So you may just...

PHILLIPS: Wow. You can really stall. SHEPHERD: ... watch it and cut back and forth. Yes, because -- and then cut back to it when you see that he's going to take some action to bring -- when you get notification he's going to come back to land, because it just depends on how much fuel he wants to burn off. He'll bring it down to a safe landing weight for the length of the runway.

And he will also, you know, if he gets the landing gear down so it indicates safe and down, he's still going to make a precautionary landing, realizing something could break later. But he'll get it down to a safe weight for the length of the runway and the runway conditions, whether it's wet or not. He'll check the books for all of that before he does it.

PHILLIPS: So you're saying this could last for a few hours?

SHEPHERD: Yes, it could.

PHILLIPS: Shep, I hope the producers are listening to this, because I really hope we're not going to sit on this live coverage for a few hours, if indeed that's the case.

SHEPHERD: And I'm not sweaty -- I'm not sweaty under the armpits but I'm glad that I'm here and not on board this airplane.

PHILLIPS: Yes, no kidding. And I'm assuming you're at home there in Arizona. So you don't have any place to go, just in case you and I have to get cozy here for awhile.

SHEPHERD: Exactly. And these guys are pros, Kyra. So they're going to pull this off. People that have family on board, they're going to pull this thing off. But it needs to be watched, because always something bad can happen in the worst of a situation.

PHILLIPS: All right. So we're going to go ahead and -- so we are going to wrap this up, Jen? Or what are we doing?

OK. All right. So General Shepherd, we're listening to what you have to say and the fact this could take awhile. So we're going to take a quick break. We're going to continue to monitor the situation. Stay close to the phone so we can call you to assist us as this plane, hopefully, makes a successful landing.

Once again, you're watching live coverage. We will stay on these live pictures and on this story. It could be awhile until we see this Gulfstream V, airborne right now, trying to get its landing gear down and make a safe landing in Portland, Oregon. We're watching it for you, so stay with us. We've got more news for you, right after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: And if you're just tuning in with us at CNN, you're looking at live pictures via our affiliate out of Portland, Oregon. We're following the path of a Gulfstream V. It's actually a Nike corporate jet that was having issues with its landing gear. Right now the pilot is circling around the airport, hoping to get that landing gear down. It's out about 45 degrees right now. But it got locked in. And so the pilot right now going through a number of motions to try to loosen that gear so it can come down fully and he or she can make a safe landing.

John King, who is a flight instructor, has a number of aviation schools, has actually flown these types of aircraft. Of course, he teaches young pilots on how to handle situations like this.

And, John, have you been able to see these live pictures and follow this situation? And do you think so far everything is going textbook with regard to burning fuel, trying to get that landing gear down to come in for a safe landing?

JOHN KING, FLIGHT INSTRUCTOR: Well, the pilot has plenty of time, because this is about a three-hour or four-hour flight he was planning on, so this is going to take a long time to play out.

You're going to have lots of time to try to troubleshoot this and do everything they can to get the gear down. And that's -- time is on the side of the pilot, and there's no hurry. There's no reason to be in any rush. And they're just kind of patiently work their way through the problem.

PHILLIPS: How do you take a pilot through this type of training, John? Do you do it in the simulator? Do you do it in real life in any way up to a certain point? I mean, how do you prepare a pilot for this type of scenario?

KING: Well, the biggest thing is the pilot has to understand the systems of the aircraft. And these kind of aircrafts, the systems are pretty complex, and you have lots of alternative things you can do to get the landing gear down or to work with problems.

So the pilot goes through about two weeks of learning all of the systems for each type of aircraft they fly. And then they'll get in the simulator and practice various kinds of emergencies. However, this is not one you can prepare for very well, because you don't know exactly how the landing gear is going to fail.

So normally you'd prepare for a gear up landing or a gear down landing. In this case, what they're going to do is use their knowledge of the systems and talk with mechanics and try and troubleshoot it from the air.

PHILLIPS: So John, apparently this started when the door didn't completely close. So they recycled the gear, making the gear go back down and then back up again. And when it was coming back up, the gear got stuck. So it is -- so they believe it's at about a 45-degree angle. So what are the options, and if it's already at a 45-degree angle, does it look -- I mean considering the options the pilot has, pretty good chance that he or she will be able to knock the landing gear fully out?

KING: Well, if you had your -- if you had your choices, you'd rather the gear be either completely up or completely down, and either landing would be a little simpler, because you like to have everything the same on both sides of the aircraft.

So if you had your choices you'd rather have it go one way or the other, but in any event, even if the pilot has to land this way, the odds of anybody getting hurt are pretty slim.

He's certainly getting a lot more attention than he'd like to have right now. And there's a little stress involved in all of this. But the odds of anybody getting hurt are pretty slim, because the airplane will stay on the runway, and the pilot will still have directional control.

The flight controls will keep it going straight until very low speeds, and then he could use differential braking.

PHILLIPS: So -- so John, what are the options if the pilot can't get the landing gear to move at all? What if it stays at 45 degrees and the pilot realizes he or she is out of fuel? What's the option?

KING: Well, they're going to -- they got plenty of time to know what their fuel status is, so what they'll do is simply wait until the fuel is low. And you want to minimize the weight of the aircraft when you're landing. And the pilot can then land on the good landing gear and use aerodynamic controls to hold the airplane's other side off the runway until the airplane is at the slowest possible speed and then gently let it touch on that side and keep it straight by using braking on the good side, and it should work out just fine.

I'm going to guess that when we watch this airplane land, it's going to stay right on the center line of the runway. And there's going to be no damage to the airplane, other than just sliding along and no fire, nobody injured in the aircraft.

But the answer is he's going to wait now as long as he possibly can to get the airplane weight down and give himself more opportunity to get the gear either up or down.

PHILLIPS: Got it, John King, stay with us.

Just moments ago, as you can imagine there are a number of helicopters airborne, capturing the live picture of the aircraft, in addition to -- in addition to monitoring the situation. We heard from one of the helo pilots just a minute ago. This is what he had to say, with our affiliate KPTV.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is this particular GV's first flight, the inaugural flight of this aircraft. It was purchased early this month in November, did have a preflight inspection, of course, before this flight today. But this is the first, the maiden voyage, as you would, of this GV Gulfstream jet.

And we understand also it may take up to as long as three hours to burn off all that fuel. I'm not clear if that's from takeoff time or from now moving forward. But that's some of the information we're gathering here. We do have both frequencies monitored here with PTX (ph) tower, so they can't land without checking in. So as soon as they do we'll have some information for you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: All right, John King. So the first flight of this aircraft. I guess it's not surprising that you might have some glitches.

KING: Well, actually it would be surprising to me. The airplane was -- obviously, was thoroughly checked out before it leaves the factory. That's really a surprise.

Also, the aircraft is not manufactured in Portland, so you would think it must have flown to Portland somehow. So I'm going to guess it's the first flight by this company after they purchased it. But that shouldn't be -- shouldn't have mechanical problems any more than any other aircraft. So I think that's just coincidence.

PHILLIPS: All right. John King, flight instructor, thank you very much. We'll continue to monitor these live pictures and keep following what will happen with this Gulfstream V. It's a Nike corporate jet, trying to make a landing here at the Portland, Oregon, airport.

We'll continue to follow the live pictures, let you know. We'll actually bring you the pictures -- just as the aircraft is getting ready to land, we'll bring it back to you live and keep you updated on these seven passengers in this Gulfstream V, getting ready -- hoping to land safely there at the Portland, Oregon, airport.

Now the other big story that we've been following today, is they braced for the worst, and that's exactly what they got. General Motors workers and their families facing Thanksgiving with the news that the world's largest automaker wants to be a whole lot smaller.

A dozen GM plants are being closed or scaled back now, tens of thousands of jobs are being cut. And

CNN's senior correspondent Allan Chernoff is standing by with more. And Allan, just how deep will those cuts go?

ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Quite significant, Kyra, and this is simply because GM does have some very serious financial problems right now. The company planning to cut 30,000 jobs, that is 9 percent of its workforce. Twelve factories are going to be affected. Some will be closed entirely. Some just a shift being shut down.

This is all going to happen beginning early next year and extending into 2008. But a very serious cutback by GM, and they're going to cut their capacity by one million vehicles a year. This will bring capacity down by about 30 percent by the time we get to 2008, compared to 2002, capacity lowered by 30 percent. That is a huge cut for this company. And the company's CEO, Rick Wagoner, is saying this is going to be quite painful.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RICK WAGONER, CHAIRMAN AND CEO, GENERAL MOTORS: I regret the impact that today's actions will have on many of our employees and their families and communities. We will work our hardest to mitigate that impact. To that end, given the demographics of our workforce, we plan to achieve much of this reduction via attrition and early- retirement programs.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHERNOFF: Kyra, this is all part of a $7 billion cost-cutting program.

Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Now, Allan, we've been reading about a number of reasons to why this is happening. Tell us about what you know with regard to the pension plans and all the money that GM is having to pay retired workers, and then taking that up against the profit issue. Is that the main problem here, is how much they're having to pay out of pocket while not selling enough cars?

CHERNOFF: Well, Kyra, keep in mind, of course, had is not the first time we've heard about major cutbacks by GM. As a result of those previously, GM has more retirees out there. So, yes, they do have a huge pension obligation -- that's a big expense -- health care expenses. They recently struck a deal with United Auto Workers to lower their health-care expenses, but still they are absolutely huge.

And on the product side, GM has got some troubles, too. They've been very reliant on sport-utility vehicles, highly profitable. The problem is, though, there's a decline in demand now for SUVs, and lots of people in auto circles are saying GM has simply stuck with the SUV, the focus on the SUV for too long.

With gas prices real high, people aren't quite as interested in those big gas guzzlers anymore, and that could hurt GM even more down the road. And now we're starting to see GM responding to that. The first factory to be cut here will be the one in Oklahoma City. They manufacture sport-utility vehicles.

PHILLIPS: All right, Allan Chernoff, thank you so much.

(MARKET REPORT)

PHILLIPS: Once again live pictures -- actually these are taped pictures via our affiliate KPTV Television in Portland, Oregon. This is the airport, actually the helicopter that just came down and is on standby right now. We've been following this developing story. These pictures, via our affiliate KGW, out of Portland, Oregon. A Gulfstream V circling the airport right now having issues with its landing gear. It's a Nike corporate jet. We know there are seven people onboard. What apparently had happened is the landing gear got stuck at about 45 degrees, so the pilot is either trying to bring the landing gear back in and lock it in, or get it to come down fully like you see here in this file picture of a Gulfstream V. But the landing gear had failed to fully retract after taking off from Hillsboro Airport. So as we continue to monitor these live pictures and follow the pilot's every move here, we hope to soon bring you live pictures of that pilot bringing down that aircraft in a safe manner. We're on that story. We'll continue to follow it.

Innocent civilians once again the victims in the fight for Iraq. A car bomb detonated near a busy market in Kaanan (ph) kills at least five people, we're told. About a dozen more were wounded. A U.S. official says that the intended target may have been a military convoy that passed by shortly before the bomb exploded.

All in all, a particularly bloody weekend across Iraq. Dozens of people were killed, Iraqi civilians, U.S. troops and suspected insurgents.

And just outside Baqubah, a suicide car bomber targeted a funeral, ramming his car into a tent filled with mourners; 25 of them died.

And more explosions in and around Baghdad killed a dozen more, all Iraqi civilians. Roadside bombs also found their victims, a U.S. soldier in one case, a child in another.

The deadliest attack happened as the weekend began. Suicide bombers blew themselves inside two mosques in a Shia-Kurdish town near the Iranian border. At least 90 were killed there.

Well, the heads are cooler, the voices softer, but hearts and minds haven't changed a bit. On the subject of the U.S. military presence in Iraq, today is a far cry from Friday night, when the House of Representatives almost came to blows over one member's call for a summary pullout. Lawmakers finally voted 403-3 to stay the course.

This morning, as you may have seen live on CNN, Vice President Cheney said that it's fine to criticize the war, criticize the decision-making, criticize the president, but don't accuse the president of lying.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RICHARD CHENEY, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I believe it is critical that we continue to remind ourselves why this nation took action and why Iraq is the central front in the war on terror and why we have a duty to persevere.

What is not legitimate and what I will again say is dishonest and reprehensible is the suggestion by some U.S. senators that the president of the United States or any member of his administration purposely misled the American people on pre-war intelligence.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Cheney also finds himself in a separate but related controversy over how the CIA interrogates terror suspects and where it draws the line. It didn't come up in the V.P.'s second Iraq speech in a week, but we're going to have a whole lot more in just a moment.

We're also keeping an ear on remarks this hour from Democratic senator and outspoken Bush/Cheney critic Joe Biden.

In the meantime, the battle to stay on message is an unpopular war.

CNN's Andrea Koppel is at the White House. And Andrea, you and I were talking this morning about last week, it got so heated. And there was this name-calling and this comparison, John Murtha to Michael Moore. And now all of a sudden, we're seeing the tone change a bit.

ANDREA KOPPEL, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely, Kyra. We heard this -- the shift in tone from the White House beginning over the weekend with President Bush's remarks while he was in Asia. And today Vice President Cheney reiterated those remarks, saying that John Murtha is a friend of his, he is a loyal American, a Marine, a patriot.

Clearly the likening of John Murtha, who is a 17-term Congressman, is no freshman fire brand by any stretch of the imagination, a highly decorated Vietnam War veteran, was something that the White House wanted to back away from today, Kyra. And so we heard the vice president pivot from those initial remarks about John Murtha to what you just alluded to, was the real focus of his speech and that is that we cannot -- the United States cannot withdraw from Iraq before it's time.

And certainly what John Murtha was saying last week was that the United States needs to get out of Iraq within the next six months. And Vice President Cheney said, look, we don't want Iraq to become another...

PHILLIPS: Andrea, forgive me. Hold your thought. Forgive me, Andrea. I hate doing this, but stay with me for just a moment. We're going to continue to talk about Iraq.

But this story that we've been following for about the past hour or so, this is the Gulfstream V that was having issues with its landing gear. It had been hovering over the Portland, Oregon, airport. And we've been following its flight path as the pilot has been trying to deal with the landing gear, get the landing gear down or get it up.

And, OK, I'm hearing some of the reporters there on the scene. We'll -- if we're able to get a good connection with them, we'll take some of that live commentary. But right now, we finally have a great shot, great live picture via our affiliate KPTV of this Gulfstream V. It's a Nike corporate jet that started having landing gear problems when it took off from Hillsboro Airport.

And I'm listening -- yes, I'm listening. Is that the pilot? Yes, let's listen to the pilot.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Within a few moments, a few minutes at the very most, we'll be seeing the airplane coming back in our direction again. And we're not getting any -- you know, we don't have the people on the ground here with us that control this particular plane, but it's still believed the emergency landing, when it does happen, will take place at PDX. But they're using Hillsboro Airport for these touching -- a series of touch and goes to try to get this landing gear back into position.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Say that one more time.

PHILLIPS: OK. That's one of the reporters that actually -- that was one of -- either the helicopter reporter on the ground, because he was airborne in the helicopter. I think he's on the ground now. And he was giving us sort of a play-by-play of what they think is going to happen. And from what we understand, this Gulfstream V is going to attempt to make a landing at Hillsboro Airport.

You're watching live pictures via our affiliate, KPTV. It's a Nike corporate jet, seven people on board. What had happened was when the pilot took off from Hillsboro earlier today -- oh I think it was about an hour and a half ago possibly, maybe an hour ago, the pilot -- they were heading to Toronto, Canada.

But soon after take-off, they -- the door didn't completely close for the landing gear, so they had to recycle the gear, kind of making the gear go back down and then try to get it to go back up again, and it locked. The landing gear locked when it was coming back up. It got stuck so that the landing gear's been at about a 45-degree angle.

And we've had a number of pilots on saying, look, you know, there are a lot of options for this pilot in the Gulfstream V to be able to land this aircraft safely, not to worry yet, that so far he or she has been doing the right thing.

Tony Harris has also been following this story in the newsroom for us, Tony. And so far, this is everything that our instructors and our...

HARRIS: That's it, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: ... former pilots have said that the pilot was going to do. So obviously he's burned enough fuel and it looks like he's coming in to try to make a landing, whether it's going to be with the landing gear up or down. I mean, can you see, Tony? I can't actually see the...

HARRIS: Here's how I can sort of give you a little bit of assistance in telling the story. What we've heard from the reporter just a moment ago, before you took these pictures, is that the aircraft that you see there, the Gulfstream V, has been attempting a series of touch-and-go maneuvers to try to do, as you mentioned, one of two things, either to release the landing gear so that all the landing gear is down or to get the landing gear to lock in place. Touch and go, to get the door to close, so that the landing gear is up.

And what we understand to this point is that to this -- to our knowledge, that all of those attempts have been unsuccessful. So you've got a couple of things going on here. You've got the jet's continuing to circle, continuing to burn fuel, as you heard from a couple of the pilots earlier. That is going to be necessary if they're going to make this belly landing, which they will probably make at the Portland International Airport.

I should point out that this -- the jet right now is circling at the Hillsboro Airport. It is not now -- because we have seen planes continuing to land and take off from the Portland International Airport. Obviously, this plane -- this jet is not attempting those touch-and-goes at the Portland International Airport, otherwise you'd have to shut that down.

What we know is that this aircraft is attempting these touch-and- go maneuvers, Kyra, at the Hillsboro Airport where it took off about 9:30 a.m. local time. So two things going on right now. That maneuver continues. First of all, the pilot is trying to continue to burn off that excess fuel for whatever emergency landing it will ultimately attempt.

And the second thing that is going on here is that the pilot is attempting these series of touch-and-go maneuvers to do one of two things -- either to get the landing gear to lock in its upright position or to come down, to release the landing gear so the pilot can land the plane correctly with all of its landing gear. So there you go.

Kyra.

PHILLIPS: And we got a bit of -- we did get a tight shot of the plane when the camera was able to get up close. And it looks like the front wheels are down.

HARRIS: Oh, great, yes.

PHILLIPS: And you can see -- see where it gets locked in a 45- degree angle there?

HARRIS: That's right.

PHILLIPS: On the right side of the aircraft. So, and this -- what's interesting about this is that one of our instructors, our flight instructor John King said that it, you know, what will happen is if the pilot can't get that landing gear completely in or out, he'll sort of do this sort of -- he'll come down on the wheels and kind of tip over and try to, you know, smoothly glide that plane in, kind of tipped over to one side.

So the fact that the pilot is pretty close to the airport here, attempting to make a landing, means that he's probably -- he or she has probably gotten rid of most of that fuel to avoid any type of explosion or catastrophe and feels pretty good about coming in for that landing.

HARRIS: Sure.

PHILLIPS: Of course, perfect case scenario, he'd be able knock out the second part of that landing gear or the third part of that landing gear or get it all up to make a belly landing. So it looks like he or she is coming -- might be coming up a little bit. Kind of going up and down, not really changing in altitude.

What do you -- what's your take, Tony?

HARRIS: I tell you, my take is, is that what this pilot is attempting to do, A -- and I think you hit it right on the head -- is A, it's continue to burn fuel for whatever attempt is going to be made here. And I think this pilot is also going to attempt the touch-and- go maneuver again and maybe again until, you know, it is determined that the gear, for whatever reason, has failed and will not -- you won't get the third leg of that gear down or the gear will not retract into its proper position up inside the plane and the door then closes.

So I think that it's probably one of those two things. It may be a combination of both, that we're going to continue to burn fuel here for whatever landing we ultimately have to make, if we do have to ultimately bring this down on the gear that we've seen that we were able to freeze there. Or we're going to attempt at this less congested, less busy airport, Hillsboro, to attempt these touch- and- go maneuvers and see if we can get this landing gear free.

Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Tony, as we continue to monitor these live pictures via our affiliate KPTV, Carol Dean-Toder, Gulfstream instructor with Flight Safety International on the phone with me now. Carol, first of all, are you able -- are you watching these live pictures?

CAROL DEAN-TODER, FLIGHT SAFETY INTL.: Yes, ma'am.

PHILLIPS: OK, great. So as you're watching these live pictures and you can see -- have you been able to see that close-up of the landing gear, it looks like? The front wheel is down -- the left side of the aircraft, the wheels are down, but it's the right side you see the landing gear locked in about a 45-degree angle. What are the pilot's options right now?

DEAN-TODER: OK, the pilot's options right now are limited. The worst-case scenario is if just one gear was actually down.

And let me correct you, too, I am not an instructor with that company. I'm a former instructor on the Gulfstream V.

PHILLIPS: Former instructor.

DEAN-TODER: Yes, and I helped develop (ph) the aircraft in 1997, and have trained many of the pilots that fly this aircraft around the world right now. I also have a couple thousand hours of experience myself flying it.

But the worst-case scenario that you can have in this airplane is if just one of the side gears would be down and the other two would be up, because then you create a pivot point on that one gear that would cause it to be very unstable. This situation is really not too bad, to be honest with you. PHILLIPS: Why is it not too bad?

DEAN-TODER: It's not too bad because they have the nose wheel down. They have the left gear down, and they only have that right side that is unstable, but you're not going to have much of a pivoting motion when that aircraft touches down.

PHILLIPS: Because you've got 45 degrees -- at least you've got 45 degrees on the right, correct?

DEAN-TODER: Yes, now the 45 degrees isn't helping you. You might as well have it all the way up. The fact that it's 45 degrees down does nothing for them at all. Actually it would be better off to have it up just to get it out of the way, because it's not going to do any good.

PHILLIPS: So when the pilot comes this to land this Gulfstream V, more than likely he or she will try to land it like this, is that right? And then is the pilot going to sort of allow the aircraft to lean over to the right side, like, how will the pilot bring this in, Carol?

DEAN-TODER: The pilot's going to bring this in, and they are going to try to keep the weight off of the right side of the airplane as much as possible for as long as possible, and that's just to allow the aircraft to decelerate with the two gears that are operating properly. Eventually the weight will start to settle on the right side, of course, and you might have the right wing dragging on the ground somewhat, and that's probably why that they were trying to get rid of some of the fuel, just in the interest of safety to prevent any type of fire.

So the -- this scenario, I'm sure, has been practiced during their training. These pilots go back to their training facility every six months, the pilot in command is required to go back for recurrent training where they cover scenarios exactly like this. They practice scenarios with the gear up completely. They practice with one gear down. They practice with just the nose wheel down.

And so all of these scenarios are very different and the ways in which the pilots would do -- would operate the aircraft under these conditions are different, and so it's very, you know, unique. But I'm sure that these pilots have practiced this in the simulator, and this is not going to be a major problem at all for them.

PHILLIPS: So what are the options that the pilot has? I mean, do you try a little G-force to kind of unlock...

DEAN-TODER: Absolutely.

PHILLIPS: OK, and, well, it looks like he or she is coming in right now, Carol. Let's see how well they do here. We're watching the live picture here of the Gulfstream V. Looks like it's going...

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: This is the closest we have seen.

PHILLIPS: We'll listen to the helo pilot here for the affiliate.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: ... another low approach, not making the emergency landing yet, but another low approach out here at Hillsboro Aviation. We just saw it passing right before our cameras here this morning on what is a very clear day out here, at least in this part of town.

PHILLIPS: OK, Carol, so he's just -- explain to me what the pilot is doing then, coming in for a low approach, but obviously taking off again, not coming in for a landing. Why is he or she doing this?

DEAN-TODER: The pilot is doing this for two reasons. One is to allow the control tower to take a look at the gear. He probably has been up there, or she, has been up there, like as you mentioned before, were doing high G-loading pull-ups, to try to force that gear down all the way.

PHILLIPS: Right.

DEAN-TODER: And they're going back down so that they can have a look at it, and see if they've been successful. Also, the pilot is practicing the approach, and just getting a feel for the runway, and that type of thing. But primarily, they just want the control tower to take a look at it and to give them an idea if their efforts that they've been making during flight have been successful in lowering the gear at all.

If the control tower tells them it isn't any different, then they may again attempt to, you know, to get it down further. If the control tower tells them it looks like it is down a little bit more, then they know that perhaps that they've -- that what they've been doing is successful.

This system, the landing gear system on this GV is hydraulic. You have two hydraulic systems on the GV, and the left hydraulic system is the one which will operate the landing gear. There is also an auxiliary-power unit that also will assist in extending the gear if the left hydraulic system fails to operate it.

If all of those operations fail, hydraulically, they have a pneumatic system that is operated with a T-handle in the cockpit, that will blow that gear down pneumatically with a high force of air. I'm sure that they've tried all of these methods, and now they're just left to, you know, try to get it down with these high G-loading maneuvers they're making in flight and...

PHILLIPS: So the pilot is trying to pull a few extra G's there to try to unlock that landing gear?

DEAN-TODER: That's correct, and also I'm sure that they're in touch with Gulfstream Aerospace Corporation right now, probably just reviewing with them if there's anything else that they can possibly do after reviewing their emergency-procedure manual in flight, to see if there's anything else that they might want to try before they come in and land this airplane.

PHILLIPS: What else could they try? What's another option, Carol?

DEAN-TODER: There is probably no other option other than what we've discussed. They have emergency procedures to go through that -- very, very detailed operations in their operating manual and, you know, they're probably going through that. The copilot is reading everything out to the captain, and they're reviewing them together, and going through every procedure, and you know, they're professionals. They're very highly trained individuals. By the time you're flying for a company like Nike, you're very high-level professional in the aviation community, and any time you're flying a GV, you're also one of the, you know, highest level professionals in the aviation community that there is.

PHILLIPS: Pretty incredible aircraft.

Well, let me ask you this, too, Carol. Evidently, this is the first flight for this aircraft. Does it surprise you that it's having a landing gear issue coming, you know, straight out of the factory?

DEAN-TODER: You know, that doesn't necessarily surprise me. I mean, this could be caused by a number of things. There are landing gear pins that are put in the landing gear before takeoff, or not before -- I'm sorry. After landing, you put these pins in, and it just is a safety precaution while the aircraft is on the ground. If someone forget to take these pins out, that could cause a problem in the landing gear system, and I'm a little bit curious that it might be pilot error. I mean, most of these situations are pilot error unfortunately, but it could have something to do with those landing- gear pins.

PHILLIPS: So in the preflight check, it's possible that he or she just didn't pull out one of those pins?

DEAN-TODER: That's a possibility. I'm not saying that's definitely what happened.

PHILLIPS: Right, but that's a possibility.

DEAN-TODER: I'm telling you that it's a possibility. And so we'll see what they come up with after this is all over.

PHILLIPS: Now you've flown the Gulfstream, right?

DEAN-TODER: That's correct, I have a couple-thousand hours.

PHILLIPS: So did you ever go through this, Carol.

DEAN-TODER: This particular emergency I've never had to deal with luckily. I have practiced this exact emergency in the simulator.

PHILLIPS: Wow.

DEAN-TODER: They have a full-motion level-D hydraulic simulator that they use for training in this aircraft, and you know, you can practice this maneuver and go through all the checklist procedures, and you know, actually feel like you're going through it. But in the actual airplane, there's a whole another level of adrenaline that these guys are dealing with right now.

And what's going to happen is after this is all over and they walk away from this, these pilots are just going to be more highly experienced and more confident in their operation of the GV.

PHILLIPS: Yes, it will be something to hopefully brag about in a good way afterward.

DEAN-TODER: That's right.

PHILLIPS: Yes, when they're having a stiff drink.

DEAN-TODER: That's right, in the debriefing.

PHILLIPS: There you go. It will be a very interesting debrief.

DEAN-TODER: That's correct.

PHILLIPS: Needless to say. Carol Dean-Toder, stay with us, will you? I just want to recap for our viewers at the top of the hour right now. You're watching live pictures via our affiliate KPTV there out of Portland, Oregon. This is actually Hillsboro, Oregon, exactly where this aircraft is. You're looking at live pictures. It's Nike corporate jet, seven people onboard. It was preparing for an emergency landing at Portland International after experiencing a landing-gear problem upon takeoff.

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