Alaska Airlines plane cuts through Tropical Storm Hilary; Passengers deal with hard landing
SANTA ANA, Calif. - Sparks flew as one of the engines of Alaska Airlines flight 1288 from Seattle hit the ground on the plane's landing at John Wayne Airport in Santa Ana.
As the Boeing 737 cut thru the rains of Tropical Storm Hilary there was an issue to the landing gear and suddenly passengers had an issue.
On cell phone video taken by Abhi Amineni, a high school student from Orange County, you could hear people saying things like "Why are we going so fast?" mixed in with lots of expletives.
Amineni and his friend Akhilesh Arunkumar were stunned.
"I was surprised. I've been on many flights and never once did I look out the window and see sparks," Abhi said.
Akhil says he knew something was wrong and they were in for a rough landing. And it was rough. It was like a crunch.
"Everyone woke up on the plane. Most people were asleep or half asleep. It just woke everyone up," he said.
As they were coming out of the plane they were greeted by OCFA firefighters. That's when Akhil knew this was serious.
The good news? No one was hurt, although nerves were rattled.
"Big credit to the pilot," Abhi said.