It’s a scene that can be frightening. An aircraft first touches down normally on the main landing gear, the nose lowers and continues to lower. Then the fuselage hits the runway, sparks fly until the plane comes to a stop. The problem: The nose gear could not be extended.
That’s exactly what happened to Fedex flight FX 6238 on Wednesday (May 8) when it landed at Istanbul Airport. The Boeing 767-300 F with the registration N110FE took off from Paris and had to land on runway 16R without nose gear at 08:14 local time. The flight had proceeded normally until shortly before the destination.
Problems with the nose gear – landing only on the third attempt
The pilots are said to have reported problems extending the nose gear before landing. The flight history from flight tracking services also shows: The ten-year-old freighter only landed on its third approach. Beforehand, he flew over the runway twice to check the landing gear.
On the third attempt at 8:14 a.m. the Boeing 767 touched down without the nose gear. The plane came to a stop in the first third of the runway. The runway was closed and traffic was handled via the remaining runways. No injuries have been reported so far.
Similar incident at Delta
Landings without the nose gear extended occur frequently. In June 2023, almost 100 people were lucky when a Delta Air Lines Boeing 717 had to touch down at Charlotte Airport without the nose gear extended. Back then, as now in Istanbul, the pilots carried out a low approach beforehand. Nobody got hurt.