Boeing 767 cargo plane landed at Istanbul Airport without its front landing gear, says a transport ministry official.
A video on social media showed the Boeing 767 belonging to FedEx Express using the back landing gear and then dipping its nose with the front portion of the fuselage.
The front landing gear did not deploy, but the pilot managed to stay on the runway, Turkey’s transport ministry said, adding that there were no casualties.
Video footage showed sparks flying and smoke billowing as the front end of the plane scraped along the runway before being doused with firefighting foam.
The Boeing 767 aircraft, flying from Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport, informed the traffic control tower at Istanbul Airport that its landing gear failed to open and it landed with guidance from the tower, the ministry said in its statement.
Airport rescue and firefighter teams made necessary preparations on the runway before landing, and no one was injured, the ministry also said, without giving a reason for the failure.
The runway where the cargo plane landed has been temporarily closed to air traffic, but traffic on the other runways at the airport is continuing without any interruption, the airport operator IGA said.
FedEx said in a statement it was coordinating with investigation authorities and would “provide additional information as it is available”.
The news comes a week after an emergency slide that fell off a Delta Air Lines flight shortly after takeoff from JFK International Airport in New York was reportedly washed up outside the beach house of a lawyer whose firm is suing Boeing over safety issues.
Jake Bissell-Linsk, a New York attorney whose firm is taking legal action against Boeing after an Alaska Airlines plane lost a door plug midair in January, said he was surprised when he saw the slide outside his oceanfront home in Belle Harbor, Queens on Sunday.
“We are right on the beach, and I saw it was sitting on the breakers,” Mr Bissell-Linsk told the New York Post. “I didn’t want to touch it, but I got close enough to get a close look at it,” he said after he found the deflated yellow slide at his Atlantic Ocean facing home, six miles southeast of JFK Airport.
“Our case is all about safety issues at Boeing, and this slide is literally right in front of my house.”
Confirming the find, the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation told The New York Times that the airlines recovered “a large piece of debris” near Beach 131st Street in Belle Harbor.
via: The Independent
