People on a JetBlue flight in the Los Angeles area, their plane crippled by a stuck nose wheel, got to see the whole situation live on television.

An excerpt from the AP story on ABC News:

Letting customers watch TV at their seats has been a JetBlue calling card since the airline took flight in 1999.

But the frill made for a bizarre experience as passengers aboard an airliner with a crippled nose wheel watched news reports about their own flight even as they prepared for an emergency landing.

Some of those aboard Flight 292, which landed safely Wednesday at Los Angeles International Airport, said later that they appreciated seeing news reports on what was happening. Others were horrified.

"It was absolutely terrifying, actually. Seeing the events broadcast made it completely surreal and detached me from the event," said Zachary Mastoon, a musician heading home on the Burbank-to-New York flight. "It became this television show I was inextricably linked to. It was no longer my situation, it was broadcast for everyone to see. It only exacerbated the situation and my fear."

Mastoon said the JetBlue employees kept passengers informed but that he heard worst-case scenarios from TV news reports. Realizing the risks, he started taking swigs from another passenger's vodka tonic.

"They were telling us there could be a crash landing, the landing gear could be torn off, and that there could be a fire. The gravity of the situation was much worse than any of us assumed," Mastoon said.

Some passengers, though, said they appreciated knowing as much as possible about their situation.

"I think on balance people were not upset," said Howard Averill, chief financial officer for NBC-Universal Television, who was traveling to a meeting in New York.

Even so, he said, some passengers would pull off their headphones after disturbing bits of news "with just that look of, I think I've heard enough."