A Delta plane landed safely at Charlotte Douglas International Airport without front landing gear (Picture: WSBT)
A plane landed on its nose safely after its front landing gear malfunctioned at touchdown.
Delta Air Lines flight 1092 landed around 9am on Wednesday at Charlotte Douglas International Airport, after departing Atlanta.
The two pilots, 96 passengers and three flight attendants on board were not injured, according to Delta.
‘While this is a rare occurrence, Delta flight crews train extensively to safely manage through many scenarios,’ the airline stated to the The Charlotte Observer.
‘We apologize to our customers for their experience.’
A Twitter user who claimed to be on the flight shared two photos of the plane with its nose to the ground.
‘On Delta flight 1092 and we just landed in Charlotte, without nose gear!’ the Twitter user wrote. ‘The crew was amazing and the pilots landed it smoothly!’
Runway 36 Left was closed following the unconventional landing. Authorities said the Boeing 717-2BD stayed on the runway due to mechanical issues.
None of the passengers or crew were injured (Picture: FOX 5)
‘The runway is closed and Airport is working to remove the aircraft. There were no injuries reported and the passengers were bussed to the terminal,’ stated the airport. ‘We are anticipating operational impacts due to the runway closure.’
As of 10.25am, 21 flights at the airport were canceled and 83 were delayed, according to FlightAware.
Delta stated: ‘Our next focus is to take care of our customers on this flight, including retrieving their bags and seeing them to their final destinations safely.’
The airline has 64 Boeing 717-200s and most of them are more than two decades old, Fox 8 reported. Delta intends to retire its Boeing 717 fleet by the mid-2020s as they will not be profitable to operate.
There have been five other incidents involving Boeing 717s.
One other Boeing 717 was not able to get down its nose gear – in August 2001, and touched down on its main landing gear and then skidded to a stop on its nose, according to aviation-safety.net.
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