Procter & Gamble aircraft with CEO on board lands safely after sensor problem

BY DAVID SINGLETON (STAFF WRITER)
Published: August 28, 2010

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PITTSTON TWP. - A corporate jet carrying Procter & Gamble Co. president and CEO Bob McDonald and other officials bound for the company's Mehoopany plant landed safely Friday at the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport after a sensor indicated a problem with the landing gear.

Nearly two dozen emergency vehicles assembled at the airport as the Gulfstream IV-SP made three passes before touching down without incident about 9:35 a.m.

About 10 minutes later, the blue and white twin turbofan jet taxied to a stop on the tarmac outside Saker Aviation Services, and the 10 passengers and three crew members exited.

McDonald downplayed the incident as the group walked through Saker's lobby to two vans waiting outside.

"The landing gear were down and we landed safely. I used to be in the military, so it's no big deal," said McDonald, a West Point graduate who served five years as a captain in the Army, according to his corporate biography.

Other passengers declined to comment.

The aircraft was en route to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton from Lunken Airport in Cincinnati, where Procter & Gamble is based, when the pilot notified airport officials of a potential landing gear issue at 8:55 a.m., public safety director George Bieber said.

The pilot received an intermittent signal from a switch "that the landing gear was possibly not engaged," he said.

After it appeared the rear landing gear might be tilted inward during the initial flyover, officials ordered two more passes to confirm it was properly deployed before the aircraft received clearance to land.

Technicians were later seen inspecting the landing gear as the aircraft sat outside Saker Aviation.

A total of 22 fire trucks, ambulances and other emergency vehicles from Luzerne and Lackawanna counties responded to supplement the airport's nine-member crew, Bieber said.

"We rely on our volunteer fire departments for assistance because you don't know what type of disaster could happen ... The guys were there. They were ready to go," he said.

Bieber said the P&G delegation was visiting the company's plant in Mehoopany, Wyoming County.

Company spokeswoman Robyn Schroeder told the Associated Press that a replacement aircraft was sent to return the group to Cincinnati.

Contact the writer: dsingleton@timesshamrock.com

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