Fort Lauderdale Airport Runway Shut Down After Emergency Landing

FORT LAUDERDALE, FL — Fort Lauderdale–Hollywood International Airport was forced to shut down one its two runways on Thursday afternoon after a small plane made an emergency landing on the south runway. Commercial airline traffic was shifted to the Broward County airport's north runway. Four people aboard the twin-engine general aviation aircraft were not injured.

"The south runway remains closed," airport officials said around 1 p.m.

Kathleen Bergen of the Federal Aviation Administration told Patch that the Cessna 402 landed with its gear retracted around noon.

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"The flight had departed FLL for South Bimini Airport earlier in the morning with four people on board," Bergen said.

FAA records show that the fixed-wing, multi-engine aircraft is registered to Fort Lauderdale charter company Air Flight Inc.

With more than 325 departure and 325 arrival flights a day, the airport is ranked 21st in the United States with respect to total passenger traffic and 13th in domestic origin and destination passengers, according to airport officials.

Fort Lauderdale offers nonstop service to 140 U.S. cities and flights to Canada, Bahamas, Caribbean, Mexico, Latin America, and Europe with some 80,000 travelers passing through the airport's four terminals every day.

"All commercial flights continue to operate normally on the north runway," airport officials said Thursday afternoon.

Photo courtesy Fort Lauderdale–Hollywood International Airport