A Lear jet that had problems with the nose landing gear diverted safely from New Jersey to Stewart Airport in Orange County late Thursday morning, authorities said.

The troubled jet landed just before noon at the public/military airport nearly 57 miles north of Teterboro, the Port Authority's Joseph Pentangelo told Daily Voice.

Hasbrouck Heights firefighters and Port Authority responders were at Teterboro Airport as the jet, with five people aboard, began circling to burn off fuel around 10:30 a.m., Pentangelo said.

The decision was made soon after to head to Stewart, where, as pilot Joseph Bar-Nadav explained, "the runways are at least twice as long as the ones at Teterboro and would make landing an aircraft with gear issues much safer.

"The long runways afford the pilot lots of room to get low and slow and then gently land on the runway surface without landing gear and leave enough room to slide as long as it needs," Bar-Nadav said.

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