Emergency Landing at San Diego tonight, American Airlines

[RadioFreeSeaLab]

I was driving by the San Diego airport tonight with my scanner on, and heard an American Airlines flight declare an emergency.  I didn't catch the whole thing, but it sounded like sparks came out of the gear controls when they tried to lower the nose gear?  The tower said something like "we copy, sparks from the controls."  The tower verified visually that the nose gear was down.  The plane made what looked like a normal landing (I pulled over to watch).  Equipment was standing by.  I believe it was an MD-90.
I do not know if the flight was scheduled to land at SAN, or if they diverted there.  Approximate time of landing was 0015 Zulu.  Does anyone know what exactly happened?
I think I've narrowed it down to one of the follow flight numbers:
1701
1429
1605

I was hoping one of you pilots might know what happened.  I haven't seen any news stories about it, and I doubt I will, since nothing bad happened.

[Jamisjockey]

What happened is what happens many, many times a day in the NAS.  Emergencies are quite common.  The airlines are pretty good about taking precautions when they find something real funny with an airplane. 
If sparks came out while they were trying to lower thier gear, they were probably a normal arrival.....typically an emergency on short final isn't going to divert to another airport....when something's wrong with your airplane, you want to land, now....
Sorry I don't know specifics anymore.... 

[280plus]

when something's wrong with your airplane, you want to land, now....

Buncha chickens... 

[Fly320s]

Sparks from the gear lever?

That's bad, umkay?     In fact, all sparks in airplanes are bad.

That's a new one on me.  I'd be very surprised if sparks came from the gear lever in the Airbus.  I'm assuming that only low voltage and amperage is used in the gear lever switching, but I'm not certain and I don't have the info with me.

[RadioFreeSeaLab]

I assume it was the gear lever, because the tower confirmed the pilot's report of "sparks from the control" and then the tower visually confirmed the nose gear down.  Once the plane was on the ground, the pilot asked the tower if they could see any smoke, and they did not.

[Manedwolf]

As long as the landing didn't look like this one.

(no crash, but I think the nose gear strut is probably about a foot or so shorter now...)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5TCP2CF21NA

when something's wrong with your airplane, you want to land, now...

Preferably rubber side down and with all the major parts still attached to the aircraft, yes.

Reminds me of that Serenity exchange. "Just get us on the ground!" "That part'll happen pretty definitely!"

[Lennyjoe]

Most likely a short in the landing gear handle.  As long as the gear transitioned to down and locked the jet wouldn't have any problems landing.  An A&P mechanic will change the handle, do follow on gear swings to ops check the handle and off it goes. 

[Tallpine]

Jodie Foster was probably crawling around in the baggage compartment switching wires around .....