Obama's MD-80 Diverted to St. Louis

According to CNN, a Midwest Airlines flight carrying U.S. Presidential candidate Barack Obama en route to a campaign stop in North Carolina had to divert to St. Louis after the pilot reported a mechanical issue. The pilot reported a "control ability issue" issue in the "pitch" of the plane. Fortunately, the pilot reported that he had maintained "full authority of the aircraft."

Eeek, this sounds eerily similar to the Alaska Airlines MD-80 plane crash off the coast of California back in 2001, when the jackscrew in the tail stabilizer failed. Glad nobody was hurt in this one.

Just for fun, I have been simulating a few of Obama's recent flights using a Midwest Airlines livery with Coolsky/Flight1's excellent Ultimate Airliners: Super 80 add-on. Fun stuff.

Update: here is the track of the flight at FlightAware. Looks like it never really headed in the direction of North Carolina to begin with. Wonder how soon into the flight the problem was discovered?

Update 2: According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, an emergency slide partially deployed unexpectedly in the rear of the plane, which affected the pilot's ability to maintain the pitch of the aircraft. The pitch problem was apparently discovered relatively soon after takeoff from Chicago-Midway. In the meantime, Mr. Obama awaits another plane to STL to take him on to his next stop. I guess airline delays happen to even the best of us!