Faulty Warning Light Prompts Less Than Dramatic Landing

American Airlines flight 1913 from Newark N.J. to Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport made a less than dramatic landing Thursday morning after a warning light turned out to be faulty.

A warning light on the MD-80 aircraft indicated that the rear emergency evacuation slide may have deployed from the tail cone during the flight, according to an FAA spokesperson. The crew were also said to have confirmed that something was dangling from the plane.

The flight landed on runway 17L at about 11:30 a.m. without incident, and with apparently nothing dangling from the back of the aircraft.  The aircraft was quickly surrounded by emergency vehicles as it taxied off of the runway.

According to Tim Wagner, a spokesperson for the Fort Worth-based airline, the indicator light apparently malfunctioned and there was nothing wrong with the tail cone.

"There was no issue with the tail cone or tail slide that we could detect immediately. They are intact and normal from our outside observations," said Wagner.

Last month, a ground worker inadvertantly pulled a lever that deployed the emergency slide on an MD-80 at Chicago's O'Hare Airport.

No injuries were reported in connection with Thursday's emergency landing.

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