[candymosh]

American Airline Plane Makes Emergency Landing
Fuel Dump Captured on Video, Photos

Updated: Monday, 25 Jul 2011, 5:52 PM CDT
Published : Monday, 25 Jul 2011, 7:29 AM CDT

James Rose

James Rose
FOX 4 News

Adapted for Web by Tracy DeLatte | myFOXdfw.com

GRAPEVINE, Texas - Unknown engine trouble caused an American Airlines jet to dump its fuel and make an emergency landing at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport.

Investigators are still trying to determine what went wrong and prompted Flight 963 bound for Sao Paolo, Brazil to return to DFW Sunday evening.

Passengers and residents watched as the aircraft dumped its fuel to lighten its load before touching down. Still several tires blew out because it was so heavy.

Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Tony Molinaro said airport firefighters reported extinguishing a fire in the right engine of the Boeing 777 after it landed.

However, American Airlines spokesman Tim Smith said that a warning light indicated there was an engine fire but that an examination determined there was none. He said the airline is still investigating the matter.

All 246 passengers on board were redirected to other flights. No one was hurt.

Several people posted video of the emergency landing on YouTube.

Irving resident Tim Moore said he saw it above his house. He heard something in the sky that didn’t sound right and then he spotted the fuel vapor trails.

“I started looking around and I saw this airplane, a big American Airlines airplane flying way too low I thought,” Moore said. “I was standing there expecting to hear a crash.”

But Allied Pilots Association spokesman 1st Officer Scott Shankland said he believes the crew did everything right.

“The crew performed perfectly. There is a check list that they run through very quickly. They got the fire indication to go out and they came back around for an emergency landing,” he said.

Some people have questioned the aircraft having to dump fuel over populated areas, but Sharkland said that is standard practice.

“When you are dumping fuel, anything above 1,000 feet the fuel should evaporate before it hits the ground,” he said.

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