<\/p>\n
A commercial aircraft landed safely Monday at the Durango-La Plata County Airport after reporting nose-gear problems.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnited Airlines Flight 5849 is on the ground without incident,\u201d said Tony Vicari, interim director of aviation for the airport.<\/p>\n
The plane, which landed at 4:30 p.m., had to circle for about a half hour to burn off fuel before touching down.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe landing was smoother than normal,\u201d said passenger Jennifer Alvenes. \u201cIt was the most beautiful landing we have ever seen.\u201d<\/p>\n
Durango Fire Protection District had fire and medical personnel on scene.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe take it seriously,\u201d Fire Marshal Karola Hanks said.<\/p>\n
Pilots reported the nose gear had been manually locked.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey did a low-level flyby so we could verify it was down,\u201d Vicari said. \u201cThey did have the two main gears and nose gear down. We have to make a judgment call on whether it\u2019s locked. There\u2019s always the chance it could collapse on impact.\u201d<\/p>\n
There were 56 people onboard.<\/p>\n
\u201cParamedics did go onboard to make sure no one onboard needed medical attention,\u201d Vicari said. \u201cThat\u2019s standard procedure in an emergency landing.\u201d<\/p>\n
The emergency didn\u2019t significantly delay any flights. Another United Airlines flight that was taxiing to depart was delayed by about 3 minutes, he said, so the runway could be inspected to make sure there were no debris.<\/p>\n
Two other United flights out of Denver were delayed for other reasons, he said.<\/p>\n