Obama plane glitch was 'emergency', tapes reveal
Senator Barack Obama in plane emergency, tapes reveal
Friday, 15, Aug 2008 12:32
An aircraft carrying Democratic presumptive nominee Barack Obama was forced to declare an emergency last month, it has been revealed.
The United States presidential candidate was flying from Chicago with his campaign team when the aircraft developed a fault which led to an unscheduled landing in St Louis.
At the time Mr Obama htold reporters he thought "we'd spice it up a little". The Federal Aviation Administration and Midwest Airlines denied there was an emergency.
Now ABC News, which has obtained tapes of the dialogue between the aircraft's pilot and St Louis' air traffic control, has revealed the pilot requested crash resopnse support on the ground and the longest available runway for the landing.
It reports the aircraft's emergency evacuation slide had inflated, interfering with control cables in the plane's tail. These caused problems affecting the pilot's ability to lift and raise the aircraft's nose.
Forty-one seconds after realising the problem the pilot radioed: "At this time we would like to declare an emergency and also have CFR [crash equipment] standing by at St Louis... we have Senator Obama on board the aircraft and his campaign."
Mr Obama laughed off the incident, describing it as a "little glitch".
The Democrat party's national convention, which will confirm him as its candidate to succeed George Bush as US president, takes place for three days from August 25th.