N4WG Emergency Landing at Sarasota Bradenton

Question: If you know you have no wheel, just the bare gear on one side, wouldn't it make more sense to land a little off the runway centerline, since the drag from that gear is going to pull you in that direction? Watching the video and seeing the aircraft being pulled to the left by the gear until the gear went off the runway and hit the grass, spinning the aircraft, made me afraid they would ground loop. I think I would have wanted to land towards the right edge of the runway and avoid having the gear hit the grass like that.

It was about 30 years ago that I first figured out that the MSM was selling news instead of reporting news. We sat down to watch the Austin, TX local KVUE 24 6:00 newscast with Judy Maggio.First words out of her mouth, and plastered across the screen in red letters,were "NIGHTMARE IN THE SKIES". A single engine aircraft had its nose wheel stuck in the up position. The pilot noticed when preparing to land and took proper emergency procedures. He ended up flying in circles for about 45 minutes to burn fuel. The newscast made it sound like the husband and wife were sweating it out with baited breath on the verge of panic.

Then, on live TV, came the most uneventful, smooth, controlled two gear landing the world had ever seen. I swear they could have jacked that plane up, buffed out the scratches, set a new nose gear, and gone home. The live interview of the pilot and his wife did nothing to contribute to the "NIGHTMARE" theme. They sounded almost bored with the whole thing. Later, I listened to the ATC tapes and it was the same. They started talking about playing golf at some point while circling. What else was there to do? Panic?

Crew appears to have did a good job. Its just terrible that clueless reporters continue to be tasked to these events. As is the usual case, this reportage is simply painful as this dolt goes for the drama. Will they never learn that bad narrative is far worse than no narrative at all?