US airliner lands safely after hours of circling

A Southwest Airlines flight landed safely on Wednesday at Oakland International Airport in northern California on the US west coast after flying for hours in a holding pattern due to "a landing gear issue."

The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said the Southwest Flight 2547, with 139 passengers on board, landed "without incident" at 10:14 a.m. local time.

The flight took off from Oakland, east of San Francisco, at 6:13 a.m. for Chicago and the pilot reported landing gear problems soon after.

KGO, a local TV station, reported that the plane had to turn around and circle over Tracy, in the Central Valley of California, in a holding pattern.

Before touching down, the plane did a fly-by at about 600 meters over the airport, to give ground crews a chance to examine its exteriors.

The incident took place two days before Christmas, on what is traditionally the busiest day of air traffic in the year.
    Xinhua - globaltimes.cn
24/12/15