Plane carrying VP candidate Mike Pence skids off LaGuardia runway
A plane carrying Republican vice presidential candidate Mike Pence skidded off a runway as it landed at LaGuardia Airport on Thursday night, officials and witnesses said.
No one was hurt as the plane carrying the Indiana governor and 47 others — including journalists traveling with him — went out of control on the rain-slicked runway at about 7:45 p.m.
“We could feel the plane moving, and it was just not a natural landing that you experience,” recalled CNN reporter Elizabeth Landers, who was on the plane.
The plane rolled near the Grand Central Parkway in Queens, and was stopped when it ran onto “arrestor beds” that were able to help slow the aircraft.
“It was relatively close to the Grand Central, it would have been hundreds of feet away if I had to guess and fortunately that was not in play tonight,” said Port Authority Executive Director Pat Foye.
Foye added that the Boeing 737, which was painted with the Donald Trump campaign logo, went about 7,000 feet down the runway before hitting the beds, which consisted of blocks that gave way, creating a soft surface that slows momentum.
“Approximately 80 arrestor beds were destroyed . . . The arrestor beds served their purpose tonight,” he said.
Passengers aboard the campaign jet said Pence immediately got up out of his seat and began checking people for injuries once the aircraft came to a stop.
“The governor stood up and made sure everyone was okay,” tweeted NBC reporter Vaughn Hillyard.
CBS News campaign reporter Alan He said Pence handled the bumpy landing like a pro.
“He was calm. He came back to check on the press,” he told the outlet. “We had no idea we had skidded off the runway until Gov. Pence came to the back of the plane and said we may have done that.”
Pence told reporters that mud had been splashed all over the front windows of the cockpit, making it hard for the pilots to see.
He later took to Twitter to update everyone on the situation.
“So thankful everyone on our plane is safe,” he wrote. “Grateful for our first responders & the concern & prayers of so many. Back on the trail tomorrow!”
The plane — which had 37 passengers and 11 crew, including the GOP candidate and his family — was coming from Fort Dodge, Iowa, at the time of the incident.
“Happily there were no injuries,” Foye said.
Politico reported it wasn’t the first time the aircraft had a hard landing and has made other tough landings at airports around the country for months. In fact, one reporter joked that “the ‘Pence plane veers off the runway'” story had already been written, the website said.
Passengers recalled smelling burning rubber upon landing.
“We seemed to be sliding for the distance of the landing and a burning smell became very obvious — like rubber,” Fox News producer Dan Gallo, who was also on board, said in an email to the outlet.
Trump, the GOP presidential nominee, sent his best wishes to Pence soon after the incident.
“Mr. Trump did reach out to Governor Pence and is very glad everyone on board the plane is safe,” Stephanie Grisham, press tour director for the Trump campaign, said in a statement to NBC.
Pence had tweeted earlier in the evening about not being allowed to fly into LaGuardia due to a “ground hold.”
“A ground hold at LaGuardia led to some football on the tarmac in Iowa. #GameOn,” he wrote.
A senior federal official told ABC News that nothing unusual had been reported to air traffic control before the incident regarding either the flight or the plane. Constant rain throughout the day has made for slippery conditions, though.
The airport was briefly closed after the incident, and the plane will not be removed until it is inspected, the National Transportation Safety Board said.