The pilots of an Airbus A320 operated by JetBlue as Flight 194 out of Las Vegas for JFK Sunday told controllers “we’ve lost two hydraulic systems” before they declared an emergency, audio of the event shows. Ultimately, the flight landed safely and the NTSB is investigating. But the flight itself was far from routine. In the air, the airliner began to swing from side to side and rolled into steep banks. There were roughly 155 passengers aboard and some got sick. The pilots called Las Vegas to request a hold near the airport as they worked the problem. When asked by controllers, the pilots described the problem as “right now, it’s quite a few things, but the initial thing is, uh, uh, we lost our hydraulics, two, we’ve lost two hydraulic systems.” It would be four hours before the flight was safely on the ground again.
The pilots burned fuel and loitered in a holding pattern for nearly the duration of the flight. The NTSB is now seeking a cause for the aircraft’s behavior. JetBlue used a replacement aircraft as a red-eye flight to send affected passengers to New York. Audio excerpts from the flight were posted to LiveATC.net:
