LOS ANGELES — A JetBlue airliner with faulty landing gear touched down safely Wednesday at Los Angeles International Airport after circling the region for three hours with its front wheels turned sideways, unable to be retracted into the plane.

The pilot landed by balancing on the back wheels, then eased onto the front tires, which shot flames along the runway before tearing off. The metal landing gear scraped for the final several metres.

The landing was made at an auxiliary runway set apart from the main terminals. Fire trucks and emergency crews massed near the runway to help the 139 passengers and six crew members.

Within minutes of landing, the plane's door was opened and passengers walked down a stairway onto the tarmac, where buses waited.

"We all cheered. I was bawling. I cried so much," said Christine Lund, 25.

Zachary Mascoon said it was surreal to watch the emergency unfold on news coverage on a television inside the plane. At one point, he said, he tried to call his family but his cell phone call wouldn't go through.

"I wanted to call my dad to tell him I'm alive so far," the 27-year-old musician said.

He praised the flight crew's professionalism and how calmly they handled the emergency.

No injuries were immediately reported, fire officials said.

JetBlue flight 292 left Bob Hope Airport in Burbank at 3:17 p.m. local time for New York City's John F. Kennedy International Airport, said JetBlue spokesman Bryan Baldwin.

The Airbus A320 first circled the Long Beach Airport, about 50 kilometres south of Burbank, then was cleared to land at Los Angeles International Airport.

It stayed in flight to burn off fuel and lighten its weight, said U.S. Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Donn Walker. The ordeal was carried live by television and millions of viewers watched the drama unfold. The plane landed about 6:20 p.m.

JetBlue, based in Forest Hills, N.Y., is a five-year-old low-fare airline with 286 flights a day and destinations in 13 states and the Caribbean. It operates a fleet of 81 A320s.