Sometimes the rules are there for a reason … as the crew of a Citation CJ2 discovered when they flew to Atlantic City’s Bader Field on Sunday afternoon, made one aborted approach, circled around to try for the longer runway, then ran off the runway’s end and plunged into the (luckily) shallow waters that (practically) surround the downtown field. The small airport, where the longest runway is 2,900 feet, is off-limits to jet traffic. The four people on board escaped with minor injuries and were fished from the water by boaters. The jet and its four occupants are from Denmark, and were returning to Atlantic City from a trip to Burlington, Vt. It was unclear if they were actually headed for Atlantic City International Airport, about nine miles inland from Bader Field, where the runways are up to 10,000 feet long. The captain told the FAA that he was making a “routine touchdown” when the brakes failed, Newsday reported. At least one witness said he saw the tires smoking as the jet went off the runway. “He slammed the brakes on real hard — they were smoking. He hit the dirt, bounced over it and went into the drink,” George Mullin who lives near the airport told the Star-Ledger. The jet was later towed to shore, where a crane lifted it from the water. The NTSB is investigating.
