Routine Flight Turns into Hair Raising Ride

By Tom Costello, NBC News

Routine Flight Turns into Hair Raising Ride

June 20, 2012 Updated Jun 20, 2012 at 3:27 PM PDT

What was expected to be a routine trip from Las Vegas to New York City on Sunday afternoon instead turned into a rather bumpy and nauseating flight for passengers -- with an emergency landing.

JetBlue Flight 194 had to turn around after the airplane began experiencing hydraulic system problems. The pilots quickly realized that they had to return to McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas in order to land. But first they had to burn off a large amount of fuel to ensure the landing was safe.

That maneuver took more than 3 hours.

In the meantime, the plane experienced significant turbulence as it circled over the Nevada desert, making sharp turns and lurching from side to side. Passengers on board reported that many of the 155 passengers on board got sick.

The crew finally was able to land the plane at McCarran without incident. No one was injured. JetBlue accommodated passengers on a replacement aircraft that departed shortly after 10 p.m. for John F. Kennedy Airport in New York, and arrived at 6 a.m.

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