What a way to (thankfully not) go

Terry

I do not think it really caught fire but it was an impressive shower of sparks. The latest report I saw on the news said it was the sixth A320 that suffered this problem since they started being used. One Sacramento plane mechanic (no personal experience with the A320) said he thought the steering pin either sheared off or fell out sometime while the plane was moving to the takeoff strip. This pin is typically removed while the tug pushes the plane back from the gate and then put back before it starts to move under its own power.

The feed of this incident pre-empted every local, national, and cable news show until the plane landed. I would guess this had the highest TV ratings since the invasion of Iraq.

TuTu

This is not my company’s product fellow Xiamen Travellers, so DON’T panic! (unless you are travelling after you just left me at the Londoner at 4 am, and see me on the tarmac outside the plane at the terminal…)

I have read ‘official’ reports that tell it is not the pin, it is an internal problem of the gear seals.

Ain’t I the technical dude!

Terry

Okay, I figured that if it had happened before that someone familliar with the plane would know what the actual problem was. I did not see anything on aviationnow.com yet, so I did not feel confident trying to bs more about it. ;)