The end of 25L is sand and the "beach" is quite a way away. Plus you have a four-lane roadway to cross before you hit the beach. The distressed a/c was offered Edward Dry Lake as well as LAX. I assume the maintenance facility at LAX was what made that most preferable -- they certainly weren't going to continue to JFK. I was at the wrong place on the airport to watch what happened with my own eyes. I could see the news helicopters hovering for their shots south of the airport. 25L was back in operation within 2 hours. Alireza Alivandivafa wrote: > First, the pilots and jetBlue maintainance made the decision to land the > aircraft. Plain and simple. I really doubt they gave a damn about any sort of > law suit. Second, the gear would not retract, that is how they noticed the > problem in the first place, so flying to JFK would not only be unsafe, but also > impossible at the rate of fuel burn expected, especially considering they > already have to weight restrict out of BUR. > ... > > The reason the aircraft went to LAX is multi-fold. First, if it went off the > end of the runway, it would cause far less damage to any surrounding area as > the end of 25L is a beach. Second, LAX would not have traffic severly > affected, because it still had 3 runways to work with while they had to close 25L, > while LGB's only long runway would have been closed and flights, especially > jetBlue's flights, would be severly effected by having only 6000 feet of runway. > Beyond this, there is that much more emergency equipment at LAX than at LGB > because it is one of the busiest airports in the world, as opposed to one with > very limited service. Finally, LAX has a major A320 operator hubbed at the > airport with big MX hangars on site. The aircraft can just be towed over to > United and checked out there for damage and have parts replaced rather quickly. >