Plane Skids Off Van Nuys Runway

A corporate jet skidded off a runway as it attempted to land Friday morning at Van Nuys Airport, authorities said. No injuries were reported.

The plane was carrying three crew members and three passengers, whose identities were not immediately known, said Stacy Geere, an airport spokeswoman.

The Gulfstream IV aircraft took off from the airport at 7:10 a.m., but returned 10 minutes into the flight when the landing gear failed to retract, Geere said. The plane skidded along Runway 16-Right, the airport’s main 8,000-foot landing strip, before veering into the mud.

Airport crews placed plywood under the aircraft’s wheels and used a crane to pull the jet out of the mud about 1:30 p.m., Geere said.

Airport officials reversed usual air-traffic patterns to accommodate other takeoffs and landings, Geere said. Planes that usually take off to the north departed to the south, using the shorter, 4,000-foot Runway 16-Left as an alternate.

The Gulfstream IV, built in 1989 by Gulfstream Aerospace and Rolls-Royce, is a 22-seat turbojet. The aircraft was registered in August 1995 to MC Group, according to FAA records.

MC Group leases hangar space at the airport, Geere said. An unidentified person who answered the telephone at the company would not say who owned the plane or identify its occupants.