A United Airlines flight carrying 56 people landed safely in Durango Monday after the pilot reported a problem with the forward landing gear.
Tony Vicari, interim director of aviation for the Durango airport, says the pilot of United Airlines Flight 5849 had just taken off from Denver International Airport shortly before he reported a problem with the nose gear yesterday afternoon.
The pilot manually deployed the landing gear, and the plane circled the airport for about half an hour to burn off fuel before touching down.
Vicari says the jet did a low-level flyby so that airport personnel on the ground could confirm that all of the landing gear was down.
The pilot apparently did a good job, because some passengers said the landing was smoother than normal.
The emergency did not significantly delay any flights out of Durango.
