Myanmar passenger jet lands safely after landing gear fails

Mandalay : A Myanmar National Airlines plane on Sunday made an emergency landing at Mandalay International Airport on Sunday on just the rear wheels after its landing gear failed to deploy.

All 82 onboard passengers and seven crew members have been declared safe after the plane (Flight UB103) ended up landing on its nose.

Kyaw San, a spokesman for the airport, said the pilot informed the control tower before landing that he was unable to pull down the nose wheels.

A statement on the airline's Facebook page explained that the plane's EICAS — Engine Indicating and Crew Alerting System — indicated a failure of the front landing gear to deploy. The pilot tried a backup emergency procedure to pull down the wheels but that was unsuccessful. The aircraft did two fly-bys past the tower for air controllers to check visually whether the wheels had deployed.

Following emergency procedures, the pilots dumped fuel to reduce landing weight and land safely at 9:09 a.m., said the statement.

Video apparently was shot by one of the passengers and posted online showed an urgent but orderly evacuation of the passengers and crew. Passengers were seen walking away from the plane across the airfield, several of them smiling.