Los Angeles Angels charter makes emergency landing

[June 02, 2011]  LOS ANGELES (AP) -- A charter flight carrying members of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim home from an away game at Kansas City made an emergency landing at Los Angeles International Airport Wednesday after reporting a mechanical problem, officials said.

Airport spokeswoman Katherine Alvarado said the Delta Air Lines Inc. plane with some 60 people aboard landed shortly after 9 p.m.

TV footage showed passengers calmly exiting the plane onto the tarmac as fire trucks waited nearby.

"Nothing like an emergency landing at LAX to scare the crap out of us...good to be home," Angels TV announcer Victor Rojas posted in an online tweet as the plane landed.

Team spokesman Tim Mead told KCAL-TV that the team usually lands at Orange County's John Wayne airport, but was redirected to LAX due to what the pilot had referred to as possible hydraulic problems.

Angels manager Mike Scoscia told KCAL that "it was much ado about nothing."

"They told us there was a problem with the hydraulics, it wasn't serious, that it was manageable. I guess they had to manually put the landing gear down, and after that it took us a little longer to land, that's why we diverted to LAX and we were fine."

The club lost to the Royals earlier Wednesday 2-0.

Delta did not immediately respond to a telephone message left by The Associated Press after business hours.

[Associated Press]

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