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Morning News

Airliner Skids Off Burbank, California, Runway into Busy Street, Narrowly Misses Gas Station

Aired March 6, 2000 - 9:02 a.m. ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: We begin with a terrifying airplane landing in California. Southwest Airlines Flight 737 skidded off the runway in Burbank, last night, smashed through a fence and ended up in a busy street. The plane hit two cars before coming to a halt just 100 feet from a gas station. At least five people suffered minor injuries, but people on the ground and on the plane are grateful it wasn't worse.

We get more from reporter Sandra Mitchell of CNN affiliate KCBS.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SANDRA MITCHELL, KCBS REPORTER (voice-over): Tears of relief as 137 passengers are taken away from the crippled airplane. A few travelers slightly injured, but most of those on board Southwest Flight 1455 are stunned by what they survived: a too-fast landing on an out-of-control jet.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We hit the barrier, and it exploded just on impact, that just all you saw was debris. My face was sort of plastered up against the window.

MITCHELL: Out that window Kevin McCoy (ph) couldn't believe what he saw: the jet skidding toward the fuel pumps of a gas station.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm watching the Chevron station approach, and that had me nervous, and it was just some miracle. Somebody stopped that plane.

MITCHELL: When the plane stopped, the panic began.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: People were yelling, we've got to get off, because things are falling down from the ceiling, the panels were falling down from the ceiling, people were saying, you know, we've got to get our luggage or just get off.

MITCHELL: And they did. The first-off passengers helped pull the others from the wings and the back of the plane, some just too frightened to jump.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My legs were like Jell-o. Pretty scary. I was scared to jump off that thing. MITCHELL: McCoy and his wife were on Flight 1455 without their four-year-old daughter. Safely off the plane, they could only think of her.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You know, the cliche you see things in front of you, I saw my daughter's face, and that just hit me now. We made it.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: Right now, officials are preparing the plane for the big move back to the airport. Meanwhile, they're trying to figure out just how the jetliner ended up in the middle of a busy street.

CNN's Greg LaMotte joins us live now from the scene -- Greg.

GREG LAMOTTE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, no word yet on what caused the Southwest Airlines Flight 1455 from Las Vegas to Burbank to skid off the runway, but the airport authority, the Burbank Fire Department and several of the passengers said that the plane was going too fast when it hit the runway, last night, shortly after 6:00 local time, 9:00 p.m. in the east.

There were a total of 142 passengers on board that plane. It's our understanding a total of six people were injured, three from the plane. They were taken to the hospital, including the pilot. We understand that they have since been released.

Now comes the task of getting this 737 plane off of what is otherwise a busy five-lane highway. Behind me as we speak, and overhead, the plane is being moved via crane and a tow truck back through the fence area where it crashed through last night, shortly after 6:00. It will be towed onto the runway area and then towed back to a hangar.

This could have been a real disaster. The plane ended up just feet from a local gas station.

Greg LaMotte, CNN, live, Burbank, California.

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