Lucky escape as pilot lands plane without front wheels

A MYANMAR pilot saved the day after his aircraft’s landing gear failed, safely putting the jet on the runway with no front wheels on, an official said.

The nailbiting touchdown – in which no one was hurt – was the second instance of a malfunctioning flight in less than a week within the country.

Myanmar Airlines flight UB-103 – an Embraer-190 model – touched the ground at around 9am on Sunday in Mandalay (12.30pm Sunday AEST), a city popular among foreign tourists.

The plane carried 82 passengers and a crew of seven.

An unverified video circulated on social media showed a graceful landing before the plane’s nose dipped gradually to the runway, and the craft slowly ground to a halt.

Ye Htut Aung, deputy director general of Myanmar’s Civil Aviation Department, said the pilot tried repeatedly to deploy the front landing gear – 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,” 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.”

Ye Htut Aung said engineers sent by Myanmar National Airlines would examine the aircraft, adding that all jets get a daily flight check.