LATROBE, Pa - It wasn't as graceful as Lynn Swann coming down with a pass, but Pittsburgh Steelers president Dan Rooney says it's his greatest landing ever.

        The day after he was forced to make an emergency belly landing while returning from Steelers training camp, Rooney flew back to Latrobe on Thursday to recount what happened.

        The 70-year-old Rooney, who has nearly 2,000 hours of piloting experience, had just finished the 40-mile trip from Latrobe to West Mifflin, south of Pittsburgh, Wednesday night when he realized the Cessna he was flying had no electrical power.

        Rooney said he tried to lower the landing gear manually, but the hand crack jammed.

        After he couldn't reach the control tower at Allegheny County Airport, Rooney called 911.

        “The fellow at 911 did a great job,” Rooney said. “He contacted the tower and was relaying the messages between the tower and me.”

        Rooney flew around the airport to burn fuel but then his cell phone died.

        “So I just shook my wings and came in and landed,” Rooney said, choosing grass over runway to avoid potentially starting a fire. “I kept going forward, no spin or anything like that, and then finally I hit the markers that say which runway it was, and I hit that, and that put the plane in a turn and the plane came to a stop.”

        Rooney then walked from the plane, was checked out by paramedics, and called his wife, Patricia, telling her, “This was the greatest landing I ever made.”

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