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"  When Barack Obama&amp;#039;s plane encountered mechanical problems during a flight on Monday, was the presumptive Democratic presidential candidate in more danger than anyone let on, including his campaign staff, a major airline, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB)--or the senator himself? &amp;quot;Everything seemed under control,&amp;quot; Obama told reporters onboard his charter MD-80 after an unscheduled touchdown. &amp;quot;The pilots knew what they were doing.&amp;quot; But even as the head of the NTSB called the agency&amp;#039;s investigation of the incident &amp;quot;extremely serious,&amp;quot; a veteran MD-80 flight mechanic described the onboard irregularity to PopularMechanics.com as potentially &amp;quot;extremely dangerous.&amp;quot; Officials at Midwest Airlines, which operates the campaign charter, said that the plane&amp;#039;s pilot was merely exercising a suitable precaution when he diverted during a planned flight from Chicago to Charlotte, N.C., landing safely at Lambert-St. Louis International Airport at 9:51 am local time. The pilot&amp;#039;s reason: the plane had exhibited &amp;quot;controllability issues&amp;quot; after encountering turbulence following takeoff, and the pilot apparently had difficulty managing the pitch of the aircraft--that is, the extent to which the nose of the aircraft is pointed up or down. Pitch is critically important to aviation safety, as it determines the speed of the aircraft and its rate of climb or descent. Examination of the aircraft on the ground revealed that turbulence had caused an emergency slide located in the plane&amp;#039;s tail section to deploy in flight. The inflated slide then apparently pressed against hydraulic lines leading to actuators that move the elevator at the top of the aircraft&amp;#039;s T-shaped tail. Midwest Airlines downplayed the significance of the event, releasing a statement that &amp;quot;there was never an issue as to the safety of the flight.&amp;quot; An Obama campaign spokesman said that the landing was a &amp;quot;minor and precautionary&amp;quot; step, according to the Associated Press. The pilot did not declare an emergency when requesting clearance to the alternate airport. However, according to a mechanic familiar with MD-80 aircraft, inadvertent deployment of the slide could have put the airplane at serious risk. Mike Hatfield, an American Airlines mechanic who has worked on MD-80s for 20 years, called the slide&amp;#039;s deployment &amp;quot;extremely dangerous&amp;quot; in an interview this afternoon with PM. &amp;quot;If it had caught on any of the control lines, they would have lost control of the aircraft,&amp;quot; he said. Hatfield could not remember having heard of a slide deploying in flight before. Normally, the mechanism is armed on the ground by a flight attendant at the rear of the aircraft. If the rearmost door is opened when the system is engaged, a cable pulls a pin from atop a valve on a tank of compressed gas, inflating the slide, which pushes away the tail cone of the aircraft. &amp;quot;Usually, if it deploys accidentally, it happens on the ground when somebody accidentally hits something or opens the door improperly,&amp;quot; Hatfield said. In the wake of the incident, NTSB chairman Mark Rosenker announced an investigation into the surprise landing, noting that control operations onboard &amp;quot;could potentially make it extremely difficult, if not impossible, to fly the aircraft,&amp;quot; according to ABC News. The NTSB sought to quash speculation that it had launched the investigation because the candidate was aboard. &amp;quot;Whether it was a candidate or you and your mother, we would look into it regardless,&amp;quot; agency representative Bridget Surchek told PopularMechanics.com. Results of the preliminary investigation are scheduled to be released next week. Stay tuned right here for more. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.popularmechanics.com/flight/a3377/4272446/>