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American Morning

FAA Will Look Into TWA Emergency Landings

Aired July 19, 2001 - 09:17   ET

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

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: A string of emergency landings involving TWA airplanes has raised some yellow flags at the Federal Aviation Administration. Officials there plan to take a closer look at the airline's maintenance procedures.

For the latest, we're joined live by reporter Lynn Cousins of our affiliate KTVI, in St. Louis, where the latest troubled TWA plane was headed -- Lynn.

LYNN COUSINS, KTVI REPORTERS: FAA officials are coming out here to Lambert to find out about these engine troubles and to see if it's just a coincidence or if, in fact, there is a pattern and a trend actually taking place.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COUSINS (voice-over): A TWA plane flying from Phoenix, Arizona, to St. Louis, Missouri, made an emergency landing in Wichita, Kansas, yesterday. There were 99 passengers and eight crew members on board. No one was injured.

An indicator light alerted the pilot of possible engine troubles, so the pilot shut down one engine and landed without a problem.

MYRTLE GRESHAM, PASSENGER: I don't know what the problem was. But whatever it was, it wasn't bad. I don't think. And they say other planes could take us where we were going.

QUESTION: Did you get scared at all?

GRESHAM: No.

QUESTION: Nobody was panicked or anything?

GRESHAM: Nobody was panicked. Everything was wonderful.

QUESTION: Smooth landing?

GRESHAM: Smooth landing. Everything was wonderful, really.

COUSINS: Tuesday, in Miami, an MD-80 going to New York was forced to return to Miami International. As the jet was passing overhead, witnesses saw debris drop out of the sky, hitting as many as four cars. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: As we walked outside, we saw pieces of metal coming down from the TWA flight number 4 that was just passing overhead.

COUSINS: That jet had blown an engine, but landed safely. In the past week, three other TWA planes experienced engine problems, causing emergency landings on July 11, 12 and 15.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

So FAA officials are going to come out here and look into the maintenance logs. They're going to check the history of the engines and do a thorough investigation. TWA is also conducting an internal investigation. We're going to stay on top of both of those.

In the meantime, American Airlines is going to continue to take over TWA, as planned. That purchase was made back in April.

Back to you.

KAGAN: Lynn, just off the top, does there appear to be any coincidence with the planes involved? Same type of plane, same type of engines -- anything like that?

COUSINS: Same type of engines, and there tends to be, it looks like, the MD-80s specifically.

KAGAN: We will look for more information on that.

Lynn Cousins with our affiliate KTVI -- Lynn, thank you.

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