JetBlue plane tilts nose-first in the air as passengers disembark in New York

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Tuesday, October 24, 2023
JetBlue plane tilts up as passengers disembark at JFK Airport
Passengers at JFK Airport had a scary experience Sunday night as the nose of a plane lifted upward toward the sky while they disembarked.

QUEENS, NEW YORK -- Passengers on a JetBlue flight went through quite the scare when their plane tipped up nose-first on the ground as they were disembarking in New York.

The airline says a shift in weight and balance as people were leaving the flight at JFK Airport caused the front of the plane to lift up.

Video posted to the Citizen app shows the plane's nose stuck tilted in the air as a ground crew evaluates the situation.

Flight 662 had just landed from Bridgetown, Barbados, at Terminal 5 around 8:30 p.m. on Sunday.

No injuries were reported.

"Safety is JetBlue's first priority; we are reviewing this incident, and the aircraft has been taken out of service for inspection," Jetblue said in a statement.

Ed Libassi, the CEO of A&P Aircraft Maintenance, Inc. explained what he thinks might have caused the plane to tilt.

"Now the situation that JetBlue had yesterday, I've seen it in my 51-year career -- too much baggage was left in the air cargo compartment," Libassi said. "Maybe all of the people had gotten off already, or maybe everything up front was taken off quickly -- everything from baggage to fuel in the wings while they flew from Barbados."

Libassi said normally when flights come in, passengers will hear the cargo doors opening first before the jetway pulls up to the plane.

"But maybe they had trouble with the baggage door and they couldn't get it open fast enough," he said.

Libassi said despite the scare, "they did a good job on the situation" and they were lucky that they were able to get the weight off the tail and the airplane brought itself back down.