Obama’s Campaign Plane Makes Unscheduled Landing
EmailABC News’ Sunlen Miller Reports: Barack Obama’s presidential campaign plane made an unscheduled landing in St. Louis, Missouri, due to a maintenance problem.
While flying from Chicago to Charlotte, the pilot’s first officer announced that they were experiencing "controllability issues" with the "pitch" of the MD-80, describing it as a "minor little problem" but significant enough to force the unscheduled stop.
Upon take off from Chicago in bad weather, the plane made an abnormally large dip and flight attendants hurriedly placed items in overhead compartments.
"We’re doing O.K.!," Obama, D-Ill., said to the press after the incident, "A lot of excitement, huh? So everything is fine guys. Just thought we’d spice things up a little bit today. Don’t you think?"
When asked if he was worried at the time, Obama told his traveling press corps, "Anytime a pilot says that something’s not working the way it’s supposed to, then you know, you make sure you tighten you seat belt. Everything seemed under control, the pilots knew what they were doing."
CLICK HERE TO WATCH VIDEO OF OBAMA AFTER THE PLANE’S UNSCHEDULED LANDING
The presumptive Democratic nominee was aboard the plane at the time of the incident along with 44 additional passengers, including nine campaign staffers, a number of journalists and a protective Secret Service detail.
The landing in St. Louis was relatively smooth and the campaign initially considered moving Obama to a private airplane terminal but changed plans upon protests from the press. The candidate was eventually moved to a nearby hotel with a small number of journalists traveling with him.
The campaign has since announced that they will cancel Obama’s scheduled event in Charlotte.
While still aboard the plane on the St. Louis tarmac, Obama milled about the front of his cabin — reading his blackberry and he spoke to the pilot briefly. Staff opened large trip binders and talked to him (as they do on the plane ride) presumably going over details of a trip or a speech.
The candidate is calm, at one point turning around, put his hands up in a mocking type of fear, clearly downplaying the situation and poking fun at the press filming his every move.
Press are busy filing, phoning in stories and sending back video; according to the Obama campaign, mechanics are still "checking out the plane", which is not Obama’s regular campaign plane. The private campaign plane he usually flies is in the process of undergoing renovations for the general election.
Rick Santorum Sweeps 3 States 
Pentagon to Open Additional Jobs to Women
Well with Obama’s ego and constant babblings I can see how a plan might be hard to control. But, John not cool really not cool. The man has no experience or qualifications to be president but damn.
Posted by: Shannon | July 7, 2008, 11:43 am 11:43 am
Denise:
People like John will say anything to get attention…..
Reminds me of a dog barking in the night…..
Posted by: shalom | July 7, 2008, 11:50 am 11:50 am
Come on, people. Why do we have to get in to all the “I hope his plane crashes” stuff.
I don’t care if you agree with or disagree with Obama, its in bad taste.
Honestly, I hate these comment sections after news articles exactly for this type of thing. It gives any idiot — myself included — a chance to show just how much of an idiot they (we) are rather than contribute anything worthwhile to the news.
I was a journalism major in college and I worked in the media. I want the news to be the news and the commentary to be left to the water cooler.
Posted by: John S. | July 7, 2008, 11:54 am 11:54 am
Get the hell off the MD-80. Remember the Air Alaska jet? It was an MD-80 with a ‘controlability issue’.
Posted by: Bob V | July 7, 2008, 12:15 pm 12:15 pm
I flew on an MD-80 from Minnesota to Chicago and I’ve never had a more tense flight.
Posted by: J.R. | July 7, 2008, 12:17 pm 12:17 pm
Chances are it was in fact Minor, but it sounds like the MD-80 had the typical “MD-80 Rear BOLT” issue in the tail, which is the same issue that caused the fatal Air Alaskan flight to lose control during mid-flight which i recall the pilots made several recoveries before the stabalizer finally failed. I’m more than certain they are checking that horizontal stabl. bolt on the rear of the plane!
Posted by: John | July 7, 2008, 12:24 pm 12:24 pm
Must have been his personal magnetism affecting the control surfaces.
Posted by: Rich | July 7, 2008, 12:36 pm 12:36 pm
Glad he’s ok.
Posted by: Sorry | July 7, 2008, 12:38 pm 12:38 pm
Don’t let a phony to correct the problem because he will only make more boneheaded mistakes.
Posted by: skinny dog | July 7, 2008, 12:43 pm 12:43 pm
To rlp-politcal – I’m glad this country has come far enough that an African American male is the democratic nominee for President.
I’m just sad that it came at the expense of a more experienced, harder working, more qualified female candidiate.
Posted by: ch | July 7, 2008, 12:50 pm 12:50 pm
Gary -
She nor her husband did nothing to deserve the hatred of Obama supporters. The only reason is Obama’s strategy; if you cannot win on substance, destroy your opponents or discard votes or make votes discarded.
BhO came to being by challenging every single of his opponents partition signatures, in court; And because of technical reasons – people wrote down clearly their names rather than chicken strolled as “signatures” – Obama squeeze out every single of his opponents. He “won” state senate uncontested.
Did that sound familiar? He “won” US senate election uncontested.
Now, he “won” an affirmative action nomination in the primaries.
Posted by: skinny dog | July 7, 2008, 12:54 pm 12:54 pm
Notice how ABC News has not mentioned anything about the 500 Tons of Uranium shipped out of IRAQ. Notice how it destroys the arguments of the nutheads from the left. They and Obama will say anything. It should give the left a second thought about Obama. But it won’t. They were without a compass before they started the warpath against the war. And they still have no compass to get on the correct path. Such a waste, such moral dishonesty. And they think that diplomacy always work. Yet they themselves are dishonest with meaning of the facts. Go figure this dilution. But don’t waste your time. There are some that we should just ignore. 50 million Arabs mean nothing to them.
Posted by: TimScott | July 7, 2008, 12:57 pm 12:57 pm
I don’t support the guy but ‘glad he’s OK’ .. not just him but everyone onboard.
Posted by: MJ | July 7, 2008, 12:59 pm 12:59 pm
As I recall, the Alaska Air pilot’s had a pre-existing problem with the stabilizer and instead of treating it like a jammed stab and following the prescribed abnormal checklist for such, they tried to keep playing with it until they themselves broke it catastrophically. Hind-sight is always 20/20 though, isn’t it?
Posted by: Todd | July 7, 2008, 1:16 pm 1:16 pm
“Get the hell off the MD-80. Remember the Air Alaska jet? It was an MD-80 with a ‘controlability issue’.”
Not only that, it looks like the SAME controllability issue!
Posted by: Ernie Mercer | July 7, 2008, 1:24 pm 1:24 pm
For the past week, it has been continuously tilting to the right in spite of all uplifting support to right it.
Posted by: Loren Hunt | July 7, 2008, 1:45 pm 1:45 pm
Any suspicious mishap most likely will not be forgiven. I hear that the multitude is saying that any tomfoolry with your personal safety will probably end up with a situation similar to Gitmo where the guilty and the innocent are candidates for death row without trial or any evidence.
Posted by: Sandy George | July 7, 2008, 1:46 pm 1:46 pm
Those of you who are bad mouthing the MD80 don’t know what you are talking about. That ‘bad’ screw jack was caused by bad maintenance. And the crash was caused by the pilots test flying the problem. The operators manual clearly says to stop messing with the H-Stab trim if you have a problem. They kept testing it untill the screw jack failed.
Posted by: skytrainii | July 7, 2008, 1:55 pm 1:55 pm
yes, i’m quite aware of what happened on that MD-83 back in 2000. I was on the radios. It wasn’t just the maintanance & pilot trail & error. If my mind recalls, they had issues during that ENTIRE flight..flying most of the flight manually & hard labor at that just flying the aircraft – they were darn good pilots & very knowlegeable about the situation at hand. Problem existed way before the screw jack failed.
You’re correct on the maintanance, but when issues like these come up again, better to be reminded of past & certain ALL maintanance is performed on those older MD80 fleet of aircraft. Especially now when airlines are cutting costs.
Posted by: John | July 7, 2008, 2:03 pm 2:03 pm
hopefully the US will keep flying and won’t have to make an unscheduled landing after November election…
Posted by: dionisio | July 7, 2008, 2:23 pm 2:23 pm
That MD-80 would score very low is ranked on a Global Warming scale. Where’s the humanity?
Posted by: Marc | July 7, 2008, 2:34 pm 2:34 pm
john dont take offense—-the one running for pres, scary thought
Posted by: rodney | July 7, 2008, 2:41 pm 2:41 pm
merri
that is how it was years ago lets keep it that way
Posted by: rodney | July 7, 2008, 2:43 pm 2:43 pm
Merri, do you mean the Democrats that now control the Congress and have the lowest approval rating in years, even lower than the President they said was the cause of all our problems? Yes, they certainly have the country running with all the efficiency of a mute cuckoo clock. And by the way, Merri, privatizing is nothing new – who do you think feeds the military in this country, or cleans government office buildings – it’s private companies. And by the way, Merri, when gasoline hits $8 a gallon, remember that the Democrats blocked all the drilling for those enormous fields out there, and this economy will suffer dearly for it. And do you also mean the Democrats who wanted to surrender in Iraq and are now finding out that we are winning? Those Democrats?
Posted by: KPRO | July 7, 2008, 2:56 pm 2:56 pm
Has Obama blamed it on George Bush’s failed policies yet?
Posted by: Ronnie Wrangler | July 7, 2008, 2:56 pm 2:56 pm
Rudderless????
Posted by: Jack | July 7, 2008, 3:06 pm 3:06 pm
The MD-80 is one of the all-time great, safe aircraft. Glad everything turned out OK, no matter how good you think you are, having airplane trouble will freak you out.
Posted by: spincut | July 7, 2008, 3:10 pm 3:10 pm
“Controllability” issues? Was it pulling to the right too much?
Posted by: Reasoned | July 7, 2008, 3:13 pm 3:13 pm
Yeah, but it isn’t only his plane which has been pulling to the right.
It’s almost as if his right leg is shorter as he pivots more to the right in the past couple weeks. But then I’d be worried if he didn’t. If he kept ideologically to his extreme left base then we’d have what we’ve had for the past few decades – intransient leaders who refused to budge their position and most recently to not even recognize the opposing half of Americans.
Obama is currectly showing that he will be more than capable of representing ALL Americans in his capacity as President as he shifts closer to the center.
Posted by: Bad Buoy | July 7, 2008, 3:33 pm 3:33 pm
The MD 80 had a problem with the “jack screw” which controls the elevator. The jack screw if not properly cleaned and lubricated regularly, would bind and fail to spin under load. In 2001 after an Alaska Airlines MD-80 jet crashed off of the Oxnard, CA coast, all MD’s were grounded for two weeks and their jack screws examined. Several of those jets were found to have binding occurring and required their jack screws to be replaced. As for Obama, if I were him, it would be Boeing planes from here on out. The 737 has the best safety record of any commercial jet in the sky.
Posted by: Brian | July 7, 2008, 3:56 pm 3:56 pm
WOW, 75,000 people in the open air football stadium for Barry’s acceptance speech. That’s gonna be a freaky crowd. I might have to show up and sell some tin peace signs for $100 or so. I’ll make a fortune. Gosh, I hope it doesn’t rain. I can see it now, as Barry screams about how we must destroy the U.S. economy because of global warming, it starts snowing in Denver in August. The freaky people are such i diots.
Posted by: killerbee | July 7, 2008, 4:03 pm 4:03 pm
Hard to control those planes when they’re flip-flopping all over the place.
Posted by: Person | July 7, 2008, 4:12 pm 4:12 pm
Obama appears to love the attention, he is like a movie star.
Posted by: rogersm234 | July 7, 2008, 4:20 pm 4:20 pm
I liked Obama and CLinton…either or had my vote…women nor color matters to me…the economy is what matterst to me….all that other stuff is minor…we’ve had almost 50 “white” male presidents and look at or country..jobs going across seas..people here losing jobs, army losing lives…ITS TIME FOR SOMETHING NEW!!!!!!!!!!!
Posted by: Ian | July 7, 2008, 4:22 pm 4:22 pm
This is such a non-story and I hear they are now looking into a “federal investigation” of the incident. If you’re in the air odds are there will eventually be an incident. Lets not make Obama a greater story than the media has already made him!
Posted by: Sara | July 7, 2008, 4:23 pm 4:23 pm
All she does,,,
This article is not related to Hillary at all and the plane had problem was not because of her.
Sounds you just can not get over of her. Obama already won, take it with you.
Posted by: crisi08 | July 7, 2008, 4:37 pm 4:37 pm
I have never seen fellow Democrats stab fellow Democrats in the back, until the Obama cult took over the DNC and threw their best candidate out. PUMA, we have a mission, we will toss everyone involved in theis Obama mess out, or we may start a new Party.
Posted by: rogersm234 | July 7, 2008, 4:37 pm 4:37 pm
Re: “OBAMA’S AIRPLANE LANDS IN ST. LOUIS AFTER MECHANICAL PROBLEM…
Pilot Reports ‘Controllablity Issues’…”
EVIDENTLY, THE PLANE, LIKE ITS MAIN PASSENGER, KEPT CHANGING IT’S POSITIONS!!!!
Posted by: JOA | July 7, 2008, 4:38 pm 4:38 pm
Hmm. 45 People on an MD-80. Now that is concern for the environment! No carbon footprint here folks. Just move along and do as I say, ok?
Posted by: Rafer Hoxworth | July 7, 2008, 4:38 pm 4:38 pm
It happens many times on commercial flights but since this is Obama’s plane that’s big story.
Posted by: catleya | July 7, 2008, 4:42 pm 4:42 pm
I thought he was the “Messiah”. He should have “healed” the plane in flight. Lol!
Glad he made it through safely and is OK, but I still hope he loses the election.
Posted by: Mike | July 7, 2008, 5:27 pm 5:27 pm
I bet it was leaning to the hard left.
Posted by: LADNARC | July 7, 2008, 5:44 pm 5:44 pm
Obama’s plan(e) ordeal is all so very TAXING.
Posted by: chattyway | July 7, 2008, 6:04 pm 6:04 pm
“The Dog Ate My Homework” Come On!!! He didn’t want to do the townhall! Obama stinks when he’s not parroting, plagiarizing, or telepromptered!
Posted by: tminu | July 8, 2008, 12:27 am 12:27 am
Airplanes malfunction and they crash. The more time that you spend flying, then the bigger chance there is that you may be involved in a crash. These pilots have probably dealt with this or a similar issue before. What were they supposed to do, crawl off the plane, kiss the ground, and swoon and faint? The plane landed safely with no passenger injuries, and no injuries to parties on the ground. Obama gave his speech where he landed. Stuff happens.
Posted by: Melanie | July 8, 2008, 3:02 am 3:02 am
Hate only generates hate.America cannot afford any embarasing issue now if anything happens to Obama.lowlife’s always think small.which face will we present to the world,what will make us different from pakistan if we cant accormodate poeple not like us.i know some dont care and if you dont thats because you are a lowLIFE.Obama take ur security more seriously.God is in control.
Posted by: pius | July 8, 2008, 6:05 am 6:05 am
It could have been the size of his head and his ego causing the problems.
Posted by: J | July 8, 2008, 8:20 am 8:20 am
Gee… why was there no sniper fire mentioned? I mean, it was a Dem that had to land in an airplane…
Posted by: Namako OH3 | July 8, 2008, 8:53 am 8:53 am