Minor (?) Landing Incident at Chicago O'Hare

I travelled today to Chicago, for meetings tomorrow with Oce about their hot new technology for wide format printing.

Upon landing in Chicago (United #632, Seattle-Chicago O'Hare) the braking seemed to be hard and erratic. We came to a full stop at the end of the runway, off to the side. The pilot came on the intercom and said the nose landing gear failed upon touchdown, losing the ability to steer the aircraft. The co-pilot got us out of harm's way by steering with the brakes on the rear landing wheels. About 15 minutes later, we were being towed, with emergency vehicles all around us flashing their lights as we proceeded to the gate.

As a kid I learned how to steer a tractor using the rear brakes -- I can only imagine how hard it was for the co-pilot to steer a Boeing 737 using only the brakes on the rear wheels.

Everybody was calm, and the crew acted as if everything was just fine, but as an experienced traveler I realize that a stopped jet is never really out of harm's way until it is at the gate.

When we finally parked at the gate, we were two minutes early.  All's well that ends well, right?

 -- RSN