Lakers Have a Scary Landing at LAX

The Laker charter jet abruptly aborted an attempted landing at Los Angeles International Airport early Thursday because of a broken wing flap, and landed safely an hour later with dozens of emergency-response vehicles lining the tarmac.

After the initial landing attempt, the plane, a reconfigured 737, circled the area for about 45 minutes to exhaust as much fuel as possible in case of a crash landing, a team spokesman said.

An auxiliary system eventually righted the broken flap, and the plane landed about 1:30 a.m., with fire engines on hand prepared to spray the plane with foam if a fire broke out.

“It didn’t get to any panic or anything like that, but I know some things were going through my head about wanting to do some more positive things in life, not only in basketball but in other fields,” Coach Rudy Tomjanovich said.

The pilots of the plane, inbound from Denver after the Lakers played there Wednesday night, initially tried to land about 12:30 a.m. but steered the jet up when the flap would not free itself.

“We saw that we were going farther and farther away from the airport, and your mind starts working on you, you know,” Tomjanovich said.

A pilot then walked toward the middle of the plane and, flashlight in hand, examined the wings. The passengers were provided an update a few minutes before the second attempted landing, which was rocky but successful.

Forward Jumaine Jones slept through the ordeal, but most players were awake, playing cards or listening to music.

“I was awake, unfortunately,” center Chris Mihm said. “We started wondering when we were circling. They did a pretty good job of keeping it quiet until it was about time to make the final turn in. It’s always a little hairy when you’re over the ocean and you’re landing and there’s like 30 firetrucks with lights on and stuff.

“It’s not fun. When you have no control over the situation, it’s a lot tougher. Thank God we landed all right and we’re here to play another game.”

Said Tomjanovich: “When we came down, it was like Christmas with the red lights.”