re: 30 years ago today, a Boeing 737 made an emergency landing on a levee in NO East..

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The article is wrong and so are many of the comments. I am sure of this because I was there when the 737 landed on a freshly cut field wedged between an outfall canal and the levee on the inter-coastal waterway. I, along with many others, watched as the 737 came into view from our vantage point, landed, and quickly deployed its emergency slides minutes before rain started falling.

Martin Marietta badged emergency crews responded almost immediately with fire fighting equipment, ambulances, and transport vans. Passengers and crew were transported to the NASA medical facility on site with very few minor injuries resulting from the emergency egress from the plane.

Days later, the 737 was towed approximately 1.5 miles by the Space Shuttle External Tank transportation crew to the intersection of Venus Dr. and Saturn Blvd. on the Michoud Assembly Facility (see Google map), where, in the following weeks, it was thoroughly inspected by engineers from Boeing. Because Saturn Blvd. was originally designed as a runway, after some minor modifications to the roadway, the FAA re-certified Saturn Blvd. as a runway.

Both engines were removed and replaced with new engines. Tests were performed to verify the repairs and the plane was prepared for flight by Boeing ground crews. A Boeing badged flight crew arrived one morning and after a test run down Saturn Blvd., TACA Flight 110 took off and quickly disappeared into the clouds. It finally arrived at its original destination of Moisant Field(Armstrong International).

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if you see the note at the beginning of the article, you will notice that the article has been modified.

earlier versions incorrectly stated that the aircraft landed on the abandoned runway located at michoud. it did not.

these are 2 distinct locations.

it landed in one spot, a "grassy strip" next to the levee, and took off from another, the abandoned runway, in what may have been "...the final use of the old Michoud Field runway by an aircraft.”

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My first flight was with TACA back in 1984 to Belize. I asked my friend what TACA stood for. He responded "Take A Chance Airlines"!!

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