La Russa has rough landing in plane incident

ST. LOUIS -- St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony La Russa said Thursday he was unfazed when a small jet on which he was riding skidded a day earlier off a snow-covered Colorado runway, joking he's had equally -- if not more -- troubling times in a baseball dugout.

"One guy said, 'You're really handling this all right," La Russa said of the accident that happened shortly after 1:30 a.m. Central time Wednesday at Pueblo Memorial Airport. "More tongue in cheek, I said, 'After you have one-run leads in the ninth for 20 years,"' a minor landing issue gets easier to brush off.

La Russa said he was "hitching a ride home" to California with pals after a Tuesday night banquet of St. Louis' Baseball Writers Association of America chapter when the jet landed to refuel in Pueblo. La Russa was the only person affiliated with the Cardinals on board.

The Falcon corporate jet landed "pretty gentle" but began to spin when only one of the twin-engine plane's two reverse thrusters used to assist in braking deployed, causing the plane to veer off the runway, said Jerry Brienza, the airport's operations manager.

The plane came to rest about 100 feet off the runway, its wing stuck in a snow bank and its right landing gear collapsed, said Mike Fergus, a Federal Aviation Administration spokesman in Seattle.

"It was happening so fast, so loud and bumpy," La Russa said. "It gets your attention, that's the best way to describe it. You don't know what's going to happen, but you're paying attention."

When the jet finally came to a stop, La Russa said he "looked around. There was no smoke, no fire." Rescue vehicles converged, he said.

Another jet later that morning "came to pick us up" and completed the trip to California, La Russa said. "I feel safer flying to California than driving on California's freeways," he said.

The aiport's three runways were covered by about three-quarters of an inch of snow at the time, Brienza said.

The plane also was occupied by at least two other people.

While Fergus said the FAA planned to investigate the matter, La Russa took stock of it all during a life he said has included its share of rough landings.

"I'm pleased to report to my wife that I was thinking of her instead of my dog," La Russa said, alluding to the couple's 11-year-old lab-terrier mix -- one of their three dogs. "That's a helluva compliment."