BATON ROUGE – A hydraulic issue on a small, commuter plane prompted an emergency alert and an unscheduled landing at the airport Wednesday afternoon.

The alert required a large emergency presences on the runway as the jet approached for a landing just after 2 p.m. As is typical in such cases, authorities scrambled to secure safety crews around the airport.

 Emergency landings are unusual, but occur at times safely.  An alert was issued in January.  The plane in that situation landed safely.  The plane in the landing Wednesday also landed without incident.

According to flight records, the plane left Houston and was scheduled to arrive in Charleston later in the afternoon.  The plane diverted to Baton Rouge after pilots were warned of a possible issue with the aircraft.  Flight tracking records show the plane made a loop northeast of Baton Rouge and landed at the airport. 

There are about fifty people on the plane, WBRZ has learned.

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