By Staff
March 9, 2003
About 90 passengers on a United Airlines Boeing 757 took an unexpected detour to the Meridian Regional Airport on Wednesday. A sensor in the jet alerted pilots to what they thought was a fire in one of the plane's wheel wells. An emergency landing at Key Field followed as Flight 275 was making its way from Orlando to San Francisco.
A check of the United Airlines Web site revealed no signs of the unexpected landing; it simply reflected Flight 275, Orlando to Meridian, which may have baffled some folks. Oh, that commercial jet service was available non-stop between Orlando and Meridian.
But new jet service will be available in a few weeks between Meridian and Atlanta. That's been a goal of local airport officials for some time and should prove beneficial for travelers. We congratulate airport authority president Tom Williams for his leadership in achieving the goal.
The good news for the passengers and crew aboard United Flight 275 last Wednesday is that, when the emergency light flashed in the cockpit, they happened to be close to a safe, full-service, under-utilized airport  right here in our town.
That's just another benefit of having good air travel facilities.