Myanmar plane lands safely with no front wheels
YANGON: A Myanmar pilot saved the day after his aircraft's landing gear failed, forcing the jet into an emergency landing with no front wheels yesterday morning, an official said.
The nail-biting touchdown - nobody was injured - was the second instance of a malfunctioning flight in less than a week within the country.
Myanmar Airlines flight UB103 landed around 9am in Mandalay (10.30am, Singapore time) with all 89 people on board including seven crew members, safe.
An unverified online video showed a graceful landing before the nose of the Embraer-190 tipped over and the plane ground to a halt.
Mr Ye Htut Aung, deputy director general of Myanmar's Civil Aviation Department, told AFP the pilot tried repeatedly to drop the landing gear at the front of the plane - first through its computer system, then manually.
"They tried hard twice by flying around twice and asked to check whether the nose wheel dropped or not," Mr Ye Htut Aung said, calling it a "technical fault".
"So they had to land with the back wheels... The pilot could land it skilfully," he said.
"There were no casualties."
Myanmar National Airlines is sending engineers to Mandalay to check on the aircraft, Mr Ye Htut Aung said, adding all jets get a daily flight check.
Passenger Soe Moe told AFP: "Smoke came out a little when we landed... All passengers are okay."
The incident comes days after a Biman Bangladesh Airlines plane crash-landed and slid off a runway while landing in Yangon airport during a storm last Wednesday, leaving 11 passengers injured. - AFP
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