Obama's Plane Lands in St. Louis Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama will stay at a local hotel while repairs are made to his plane after it made an unscheduled and precautionary landing in St. Louis on Monday after a flight control problem arose en route from Chicago to Charlotte, N.C. The plane, an MD-80 Midwest charter, experienced a problem maintaining the proper pitch, or c More.. ontrol over keeping the nose at the proper angle, as it was taking off from Chicago, the pilot said. Laura Brown, an FAA spokeswoman, said the plane did not declare an emergency, but simply "requested a diversion for mechanical issues they called a flight control problem." As the plane was being evaluated on the ground here, Obama was reading the paper in the front of the plane, but ventured briefly to chat with the press at one point. "I just thought we'd spice things up a little bit today," Obama said, smiling and joking. Earlier while airborne, passengers had felt the plane dip briefly, causing a stomach-rolling sensation as if being in a roller coaster, but the unexpected movement did not cause visible alarm for the frequent fliers on the plane. About an hour after taking off from Chicago, reporters among the 44 passengers on board were made aware of the problem. A flight attendant, who was clearing the aisles, told reporters the plane wasn't heading to North Carolina as planned. Minutes later, Obama spokeswoman Linda Douglass came to the back of the plane to inform reporters of a "minor little problem with the airplane" and said the plane would make a precautionary landing in St. Louis. Then, the pilot came on the overhead speaker and provided more details. "We detected a little bit of controllability issue in terms of our ability to control the aircraft in the pitch, which is the nose up and nose down mode," announced the pilot, whose name was not released in accordance with Midwest policy. "The autopilot and the aircraf...