Passengers onboard an American Airlines flight between Phoenix and Monterrey ended up in San Francisco after the Airbus A319-100 experienced an issue with its landing gear. This led to the captain initiating a go-around at Monterrey, before declaring PAN-PAN, and diverting to the larger San Francisco International Airport.

The flight, which departed on Thursday, January 15, was operating as American Airlines flight 1866 between Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport (PHX) and Monterrey International Airport (MTY). According to Aviation Herald, 90 people were on board. The aircraft eventually was able to have its landing gear released by alternative means during the diversion to SFO, enabling the aircraft to land safely.

AA1866 To Monterrey

Between Phoenix and Monterrey, American Airlines maintains a daily evening service departing from PHX, and the flight takes approximately 90 minutes. On January 15, Flightradar24 data shows the flight had departed from PHX at 6:23 pm, just shy of its planned departure time of 6:15 pm. The aircraft, an Airbus A319-100 with registration N816AW, departed from Phoenix in a westerly direction and quickly gained altitude to approximately 38,000 feet.

The plane was making its final approach to Monterrey when the crew identified that the landing gear of the Airbus airplane would not deploy. This initiated a go around of the flight with several attempts to lower the gear. Unfortunately, with the issue ongoing, the crew decided to declare ‘PAN PAN PAN PAN PAN PAN’ (which means there is a serious problem requiring urgent attention, lives are currently safe).

Simple Flying reached out to American Airlines for comment. We will update this article when we receive a response.

Diverted To San Francisco

The decision was made to divert to San Francisco International Airport (SFO) due to a longer runway, additional ground crew, and emergency services if required. The aircraft, during its trip up the California coast to SFO, was eventually able to get the landing gear to deploy by alternative means, which led to the aircraft being able to land safely on SFO runway 28R.

During the diversion to SFO, the crew made an annoucement onboard to outline what the passengers could expect on arrival to SFO, and that the aircraft would come to a stop on the runway and be inspected by emergency services, before being towed off the runway due to non-functioning nose-wheel steering.

For the 90 of those onboard, the approximate delay for landing was around 35 minutes following the initial go-around at Monterrey. Reports by a passenger and published by Aviation Herald suggest that the flight crew announced they may have to undertake a belly landing had the landing gear not deployed; however, at this stage remains unconfirmed.

Passengers once disembarked at SFO were then accommodated by other means to Monterrey. The aircraft was taken out of service and remained on the apron overnight before being ferried back to Phoenix as AA9789 the next day. The following data from Flightradar24 shows the aircraft has operated three scheduled flights today (January 16) without major disruption.

25-Year-Old N816AW

The aircraft at the centre of this incident was 25.2 year old Airbus A319-100 bearing registration N816AW. According to ch-aviation, the aircraft took its first test flight on October 21, 2000, under German Airbus registration D-AVYV. The plane was subsequently delivered to America West Airlines later that month, on October 31.

For five and a half years, the aircraft operated for the Tempe-based carrier before its merger with US Airways. The plane was then transferred to US on January 16, 2006, before eventually being merged by American Airlines with registration transferring on April 8, 2015. American Airlines remains the world’s largest operator of the A319-100, with 132 active in service (albeit with two different configurations). Further details below:

Powered by two IAE V2524-A5 engines, this aircraft can carry up to 128 passengers across two classes. Eight in Domestic First, and 120 in Main Cabin.