“Then all of a sudden it kind of felt like it hit a black ice patch, and then it went sideways,” said Salz, a producer in Los Angeles who was back in Omaha for a visit.

McCoy, the airport affairs manager, said crews had been working on treating Eppley’s runways since the start of the freezing drizzle earlier in the day.

Sarah Smith was traveling Friday with her husband, Andy Lee, and their three small children from Alamo, California, for a niece’s birthday party. Like many passengers, she said Friday’s ordeal was mostly calm.

“You could just tell you were sliding a little bit, and then a little bumpy near the end,” she said.

Passengers said they stayed on the plane for about an hour after it slid off the end of Runway 14R. Stairs were eventually brought to the aircraft, and passengers were taken by bus back to the terminal, where they were briefly sequestered in a conference room.

Smith said her children didn’t seem to notice that anything was amiss.

“I don’t think they even realized what happened,” she said.

Philip Baris, 57, came to town from Los Angeles for a wedding. He had a window seat and said he knew that the landing didn’t go right when he saw ice.