BUFFALO, NY (WKBW) – A rough landing for passengers flying in from Washington Dulles Airport into Buffalo Sunday night after their United Express plane went off the runway.
United Air Flight 3796 arrived at 11:39 p.m. according to Flight Aware.
The plane, N514MJ, is registered to Mesa Airlines but flies under the United Express banner under a code sharing agreement.
NFTA spokesperson Doug Hartmayer tells 7 Eyewitness News, the plane skidded at the Northwest end of the airport and came to rest at what’s known as a “safety area” – that’s 300 to 400 feet of grass at the end of the alternate runway.
“Thank God we stopped before we hit Cayuga Drive, because we were pretty darn close,” said passenger Mike Deni.
“We ended up circling the city several times, I counted at least three. The plane was kind of bumpy going down, but I just assumed we weren’t cleared for landing. When we landed it felt pretty normal, it felt pretty smooth and than we just notice grass flying up by the windows and clearly we were not longer on the runway,” said passenger Caity Cosentino.
There were 73 people on board, 69 passengers 4 crew members.
No one was hurt.
NFTA busses took the passengers to the terminal from the airfield.
The Bombardier CL-600 jet went off on the crosswinds runway at the airport. Planes are still taking off and landing at the main runway.
Hartmayer said the main runway was open the entire time; and will remain open through the night and into the morning. The alternate runway will stay closed until the plane is removed. It is not expected to impact travelers going in and out of Buffalo Monday morning.
The crew is expected to go through a debriefing with several agencies.
In a statement, United Airlines attributed the incident to high winds.
7 Eyewitness News is told the FAA and NTSB will be called in to look for a cause in this incident.