With all the Monday Morning quarterbacking, it's worth keeping in mind that one of the golden rules for dealing with broken airplanes is to get them on the ground with due haste, on the best runway available. LAX, because it is the longest nearby runway with good crash/safety/fire teams. Given that you don't know why it failed, and what exactly broke, you don't go adding time and complexity to the situation by going off to JFK with an airplane with an unknown, and unknowable problem. Take time to burn off some fuel? Sure. Talk to the maintenance folks, and make sure you know as much as you can? Sure. Hare off on a cross country flight? Don't think so. You think you know what happened, but what it you're wrong? Suppose it seems like a simple problem, but it turns out there's a slow hydraulic leak, or a intermittent electrical short, or a bit of metal wiggling about that will, at some point fly loose? You don't go invite trouble. You go and land. - David