Passengers arrive to KCI after emergency pit stop in New York City

NEW YORK - More than 75 people aboard a Pinnacle Airlines jet arrived in Kansas City early Tuesday after the plane had to make an emergency landing because of a problem with its landing gear.

WNBC-TV in New York reports the flight, operated by Delta Airlines, left Boston’s Logan International Airport around 5:45 CDT with 73 passengers and four crew on board en route to Kansas City.

“It seems like as soon as we started going, you kind of started to feel it like rumble,” said passenger Rachel Taylor after those on board were put on a different planed and arrived in Kansas City around 1 a.m. Tuesday, “and it felt like we were running over a bunch of cracks in the cement in the pavement. But it just got more intense as we speeded up.”

The pilot of Flight 3285 notified air traffic controllers that shortly after takeoff, a front landing gear tire blew out. The plane eventually made an emergency landing two hours later at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York. There were no injuries.

“I was in tears, like hyper-ventilating, like clutching the seat,” Taylor said, “cause I’ve flown many so many times and nothing like this has ever happened before.”

She said the landing at JFK was a nervous one for passengers.

“Everyone cheered as soon as we came to a stop,” Taylor said, “and we realized we weren’t on fire or anything. I was like ‘Oh my God, we’re alive.’”