Loading ...Once returning to Minneapolis from LA… on a colorful BRANIFF 727… we departed LA while there was a raging snowstorm up in Minnesota. The pilot told us that the weather front was due to move past just before we arrived, so we should be OK for landing. Redeye nite flight, with dawn cracking as we were over the midwest. Out the window at altitude I could clearly see the sloping cold front, pushing a line of storm clouds ahead of it. Just past dawn we approached MSP International that had JUST opened after they cleared the runways. We were the first plane to land. We leveled out at the landing zone, and the plane floated… and floated… and floated. I was getting nervous because we were floating on dense cold air and going too far down the runway. The pilot had come in too fast. Now the pilot started to rock the plane to touch the left wheel, then the right wheel, back and forth twice touching before we finally settled on the runway. And then we slid… and slid. Brakes fully applied on ice, every time we hit a small dry patch of concrete the wheels jerked and BANG! like a shotgun from the wheels. BANG… BANG… BANG… each time slowing us a bit more. My heart was in my mouth. Finally we stopped.
Long pause until the pilot finally came on and apologized for the rough landing. He told us they closed the airport behind us again, and clearly had more work to do on the runways. We will be here for a few minutes while they bring out a ground tractor to tow our plane into the terminal. When they did, they first pushed the plane backwards half a plane length before spinning us around. THEN I saw the wingtips barely clearing the snowbank at the end of the runway. The nose of the plane must have been right up against that snowbank at the end! The pilots must have needed new underwear after watching that happen up front.