Passenger plane makes emergency landing in Brazil without front wheels
A passenger plane made an emergency landing in Brazil with no front wheels.
The Avianca Airlines jet carrying 49 passengers and crew landed in Brasilia on Friday evening after its front landing gear failed to deploy.
According to AP, Brazil's Air Force said there were no injuries in the emergency landing.
The plane took off from Petrolina, in northeast Brazil, and the landing gear did not lower as it made its approach at Brasilia's airport.
The pilot safely landed the aircraft on its rear wheels and after several hundred metres, the nose touched the ground and the plane slid to a stop.
Reuters reports that fire crews foamed the plane to prevent fire.
The pilot had circled Brasilia to shed fuel and lower the weight of the plane before landing.
An Air Force spokesman told Reuters: "The plane suffered a hydraulic problem and the front landing gear did not open, so the pilot did a belly landing."
In 2012, an aircraft carrying 80 people lost a wheel after touching down in Vienna.
The Austrian Airlines plane lost one of its two right-side wheels but landed safely.
And in 2011, a commercial plane carrying 230 passengers carried out an emergency landing after its landing gear completely failed.
The pilot was hailed a hero after bringing the Boeing 767 in to land at Warsaw Airport with no wheels - and no injuries.
The plane, which was en route from Newark, New Jersey, skidded along the runway as sparks flew from under the engines and smoke billowed from the undercarriage.
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