Myanmar National Airlines plane forced to make dramatic landing using only rear wheels after front gear fails

The plane was forced to land using only its rear wheels after the front landing gear failed to deploy
AP
Megan White12 May 2019

A plane was forced to make a dramatic emergency landing using only its rear wheels after the front landing gear failed to deploy.

The Myanmar National Airlines plane was attempting to land at Mandalay International Airport on Sunday when it encountered difficulties.

The plane touched down on its rear sets of wheels before the plane's nose tilted down to scrape the runway, sending off a shower of sparks as it slowed to a stop.

All 82 passengers and seven crew members aboard Flight UB103 from Yangon were declared safe.

A passenger records on her phone as firefighters attend to the scene at Mandalay International Airport
NAY MIN

Kyaw San, a spokesman for the airport, said the pilot informed the control tower before landing that he was unable to pull down the nose wheels.

A statement on the airline's Facebook page explained that the plane's EICAS - Engine Indicating and Crew Alerting System - indicated a failure of the front landing gear to deploy.

The pilot tried a backup emergency procedure to pull down the wheels but that was unsuccessful.

The aircraft did two fly-bys past the tower for air controllers to check visually whether the wheels had deployed.

Smoke enters the cabin as passengers wait to evacuate after Myanmar National Airlines flight UB103 landed without a front wheel
NAY MIN

The captain followed emergency procedures to dump fuel to reduce the landing weight, and made a safe landing at 9:09 a.m., said the statement.

Video apparently was shot by one of the passengers and posted online showed an urgent but orderly evacuation of the passengers and crew.

Passengers were seen walking away from the plane across the airfield, several of them smiling.

Flight operations at the airport were temporarily suspended, and allowed to resume after about 2 hours for smaller aircraft.

The runways were expected to be reopened for use by larger Boeing and Airbus aircraft by late afternoon.

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