Terror as plane lands without its nose wheel
PASSENGERS on an internal flight endured a terrifying ordeal yesterday when their plane’s nose wheel failed.
Flybe crew spotted the problem shortly after taking off from Belfast at 11.07 en route to Inverness.
Flight BE331, with 52 passengers, an infant and four crew aboard, had to circle for more than two hours at 4,000ft over the Irish Sea to burn up fuel and reduce weight ahead of an emergency landing.
The purple and orange Bombardier Q-400 aircraft then came down at Belfast International Airport as ambulances, fire engines and police cars lined up on the runway in readiness.
The pilot held the plane’s nose up as long as possible but without the wheel, the front of the plane fell to the ground soon after touchdown and it slid along the runway. But amazingly only one person was hurt
An airline spokesman said: “Flybe can confirm that one passenger was taken to hospital with a minor hand injury following an incident involving one of our aircraft this afternoon which landed with its nose gear raised.”
The spokesman added: “We are sending a specialist team to Belfast to do all we can to understand the cause.”
Drones caused four airport near misses classed as “highest risk” in July and August, the UK Airport Board revealed yesterday. They affected planes approaching Heathrow, Gatwick, Bristol and Manchester airports.