An aircraft with landing gear problems is examined after it landed safely at Lambert St. Louis International Airport on Monday, March 4, 2013. (AP Photo/St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Robert Cohen)
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An aircraft with landing gear problems is examined after it landed safely at Lambert St. Louis International Airport on Monday, March 4, 2013. (AP Photo/St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Robert Cohen)
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An aircraft sits on the tarmac after making an emergency landing at Lambert St. Louis International Airport Monday, March 4, 2013, in St. Louis. An official says the eight passengers aboard the small aircraft with landing gear troubles walked off the plane after it landed safely. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)
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Firefighters work to stabilize an aircraft that reported landing gear problems and later landed safely at Lambert St. Louis International Airport on Monday, March 4, 2013. The pilot was coming from Ohio and planned to land at St. Louis Downtown Airport in Cahokia, but was diverted to Lambert, dumping fuel along the way. A Southwest plane lands in the background. (AP Photo/St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Robert Cohen) EDWARDSVILLE INTELLIGENCER OUT; THE ALTON TELEGRAPH OUT
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Emergency vehicles surround an aircraft, bottom, that sits on the tarmac after making an emergency landing as another jet takes off at Lambert St. Louis International Airport Monday, March 4, 2013, in St. Louis. An official says the eight passengers aboard the small aircraft with landing gear troubles walked off the plane after it landed safely.(AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)
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Ambulances gather at the old Georgia State Patrol post in Thomson, Ga., near the scene of a plane crash Wednesday, Feb. 20, 2012. An aviation official says a small jet with seven people aboard ran off the end of the runway and crashed at the Thomson-McDuffie County Airport. (AP Photo/The Augusta Chronicle, Todd Bennett)
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An unidentified worker makes repairs to a gate at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport Friday morning, Nov. 16, 2012, after a woman driving with a small child in her car crashed through the gate and drove on a runway Thursday night. The incident was the latest in a series of similar mishaps across the country that have raised questions whether the nation's airports are truly secure. (AP Photos/Jacques Billeaud)
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Koko Nicole Anderson, 21, from Mesa, Ariz., is shown after being jailed on aggravated DUI and criminal damage charges in this handout photo provided by the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office on Friday, Nov. 16, 2012. Anderson was charged after crashing her car through a gate at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport Thursday night, driving on the runway in the latest in a series of similar mishaps across the country that have raised questions whether the nation's airports are truly secure. (AP Photo/Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office)
Learjet passengers walk off aircraft in St. Louis
ST. LOUIS (AP) — Eight passengers and a pilot safely walked off a small aircraft Monday afternoon at St. Louis-Lambert International Airport after the pilot reported landing gear troubles and emergency personnel and vehicles gathered at two area airports in case of a crash.
The plane's front landing gear was turned sideways when it touched down. It had circled the airports several times to burn off fuel before safely landing, airport director Rhonda Hamm-Niebruegge said.
The passengers were shuttled away shortly after the landing.
"Everybody was happy to see the bus and to get off the plane," Hamm-Niebruegge said.
Officials said no injuries were reported.
The business-class Learjet 45 was inbound from Wooster, Ohio, to St. Louis Downtown Airport in Cahokia, Ill., when it reported trouble. Emergency crews awaited its arrival both at Cahokia and St. Louis, where it was eventually diverted to the airport's longest runway
Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Elizabeth Cory said the aircraft landed "without incident" at 1:32 p.m. The FAA said the aircraft did not suffer a nose-gear collapse. The pilot gently steered the plane off the runway under its own power a short time after the landing.
FAA officials were en route to investigate, Hamm-Niebruegge said.
The plane was diverted to St. Louis because that airport is better prepared for an emergency landing, Hamm-Niebruegge said. Cahokia is 5 miles south of St. Louis.
The plane is registered to Aerometro LLC of Houston, Texas.
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