Obama makes unscheduled landing after plane problems

WASHINGTON (AFP) — A chartered airliner carrying Democratic White House hopeful Barack Obama was forced to make an unscheduled landing on Monday in St. Louis after its flight crew detected mechanical problems.

The twin-engined Midwest Airlines MD-81 jet was diverted to Midwestern Missouri, during a flight from Chicago to North Carolina, after the pilots noticed problems with pitch controls, which keep the aircraft in level flight.

An inspection on the ground revealed that the rear emergency evacuation slide had deployed inside the tail cone during flight, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said.

After the plane landed safely, Obama said pilots noticed something was not working properly aboard the plane, which was carrying 48 passengers and crew, including campaign staff, Secret Service agents and journalists.

"Anytime a pilot says that something's not working the way it's supposed to, then you know, you make sure you tighten your seatbelt," he told reporters.

"Everything seemed under control, the pilots know what they are doing."The pilot of the Midwest jet told passengers that they were never in danger and did not need to adopt the emergency brace position when he came into land, television networks reported.

The NTSB said in a statement that the pilots first noticed that the controls were sluggish when they took the plane off autopilot to manually fly around a network of thunderstorms.

A NTSB investigator was dispatched to St. Louis to investigate the incident, and was due to arrive later Monday.The decision to ground the plane, fitted with luxury business-class style seating throughout, meant Obama had to postpone a scheduled speech on the economy in North Carolina.

He instead appeared at a hastily organized event in St Louis. The jet was reportedly filling in for Obama's larger campaign plane which was being refitted for the general election.

The Midwest charter plane was used extensively by Hillary Clinton in her unsuccessful Democratic primary run and also is often used by major league US sports teams.

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Fonte: Flight Safety Information n08/07/2008.