American Airlines flight forced to make emergency landing in Bakersfield

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) — An American Airlines flight with 130 passengers diverted to an emergency landing at Meadows Field. The flight was from Dallas to San Luis Obispo and landed in Bakersfield due to a landing flap issue. The flight safely landed around 12PM followed by two fire trucks until it docked.

“The flight attendant came up and said hey we have a little trouble with the flaps and I said really, he said yeah they didn’t want to take the chance trying to land in San Luis Obispo,” said Mike Martinez, a passenger on that flight. “They were rerouting us to Bakersfield where the land strip was a little bit longer, little bit flatter just to be safe.”

“It was a really hard break landing but other than that it was fine, saw some firetrucks behind us and stuff but thank god we are all okay…I was a little afraid yeah for sure,” said Debbie Treece, another passenger on the flight.

The call for the fire department was for a potential brake fire, “Big concern that if they make a no flap landing that there is potential for a brake fire, hot brakes.”

Folks that deboarded were told that the plane was going to be fixed or they will be bused to San Luis Obispo.

This is now the fourth aircraft issue in Bakersfield in a week, one was a crash of a private plane on Oct. 2, in which the pilot suffered major injuries. An airplane parachute was deployed.

Another of a private plane where the pilots wife landed the plane after the her husband had a fatal heart attack midflight. She landed the plane safely at Meadows Field.

Passengers on today’s emergency landing said this experience will not affect their decision to fly, “I’ll still be taking flights, yeah, unless something happened maybe a lot worse then I may have to think about that one,” said Treece.

Kern County Fire Department said the fire trucks were precautionary in case a fire broke out from the landing. Besides changing travel plans, the passengers of this American Airlines flight were unharmed.

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