Video: Plane Lands With No Front Wheels in Peru
A commercial flight with no front wheels made an emergency landing in Lima, Peru, Sunday evening, causing the nose of the aircraft to spark against the runway.
LC Peru flight 1323 was scheduled to land in Ayacucho, a city in south-central Peru, when it made the emergency landing in Lima. The aircraft, reportedly a Bombardier Dash-8 Q400, was forced into a belly-landing because the front landing gear wheels did not release as it reached the runway. The initial reason for the diversion is still under investigation.
Fortunately, all 59 passengers and five crew members made it off the plan safely with no injuries.
“We appreciate the excellent maneuver of our pilot who managed to control the situation in an admirable way," LC Peru said in a statement, Express reported.
Although it might seem scary and dramatic due to the sparks, aviation expert and pilot Patrick Smith told TPG, the dangers for such a landing are minimal. “The trick is to land at the slowest speed possible and hold off pressure,” Smith said. ” You also want to touch down slowly for obvious reasons.” He added that landings with missing wheels or tires are “way, way down on the list of hazards” for modern aircraft.
A similar, high-profile incident happened in 2005 when JetBlue flight 292's front landing gear deployed at a sideways angle. That plane, an Airbus A320, made a dramatic emergency landing at LAX. Video shows sparks flying off the front of the aircraft, but all 140 on board were unharmed.
Pilots are trained to deal with situations like these and there are several steps passengers can take to ensure they're the safest they can be during a flight emergency. This isn't the first time a plane has to make an emergency landing belly landing.
On Tuesday, a private aircraft carrying 16 people, including rapper Post Malone, landed safely after after blowing out its two front tires upon takeoff. The Gulfstream IV landed without incident at New York’s Stewart Airport (SWF). TPG Editor-at-Large Zach Honig answered our readers' questions about planes landing with blown out tires.
