Emergency gear-up landing of LOT B767 in WAW

[radzinx]

Latest news: in Polish

http://www.tvn24.pl/

[earthman]

A Lot Polish Airlines Boeing 767 flight LO16 flying from New York to Warsaw with 230 people on board has made a succesful emergency landing on its belly at Warsaw because the gear did not extend. The passengers are now being evacuated. (or are probably evacuated by now)

Here is a picture of the plane just moments before touchdown, as you can see the gear did not extend.

[earthman]

Oh and here is a picture and video of the landing.

[earthman]

Youtube vid:



And yes the runway was covered with foam by the emergency response services at the airport.

[earthman]

Initial reports say nobody was injured, let's hope it stays that way.

[Acid-drop]

very impressive

[Passenger]

Reuters video on Youtube:

[regi]

And so shortly after the Iranair 727 without nose gear !
Boeing has made strong airplanes.
I wonder how a "plastic plane" would perform in a similar situation...

[jan_olieslagers]

Boeing has made strong airplanes.

Yes, they have. So have many others, Russians not the least.

I wonder how a "plastic plane" would perform in a similar situation.

As designed, and tested, and certified, I should expect.

[-KoeKe-]

Indeed wa(u)w

[sn26567]

Detailed story in The Aviation Herald: http://www.avherald.com/h?article=4456bd6b&opt=0

WAW will be closed until tomorrow at 09:00. All aircraft due to land have been rerouted to other airports (Cracow, Lodz, Poznan and Gdansk) or asked to go back to their airport of departure.

Before landing, the 767 was accompanied by two F16s of the Polish Air Force.

The aircraft involved was SP-LPC (cn 28656/659), delivered to LOT Polish Airlines in 1997.

The pilot was Capt. Wrona. His name means "crow" in English. No surprise he van fly like a bird!

[sn26567]

Chopin Airport in Warsaw has just announced it will be closed to traffic till Thursday (03/11/2011) 4.00 am

[Passenger]

From the report at AvHerald.com: Warsaw's Chopin Airport is currently closed, it's website is down due to overload ("No server is available to handle this request").

So it's not only Brussels Airport's website that blocks in extreme emergencies...

[earthman]

Capt. Wrona is also an experienced glider pilot. Just like in some other scary incidents with good outcome. Perhaps this should be a mandatory part of pilot training?

[wernerrav4]

Capt "Sully" Sullenberger the hero in NY was indeed also a very experient glider pilot. A lot of pilots are starting their flying carreer within the " Aircadets", not all of them though. A glider pilot I knew always said that the best feeling and movements in the air were in a glider but this will be a personal experience I suppose.

[sn26567]

The fact that the pilot could not extend the landing gear seems strange. When the electric motor does not work, it is still possible to unlock the gear and to let it free-fall into its down position, where it is automatically locked. Could an experienced pilot please comment?

[tolipanebas]

What is interesting to discuss is the in my view odd decision to execute this gear up landing at WAW...
Given there was no real urgency to land (the plane had circled for some time, which is quite normal as the cabin needs to be prepared and fuel needs to be burned), it might have been a good idea to divert to another equally suitable airport meanwhile, where it would certainly have caused less disturbances...
I am fairly sure next time LOT will include this consideration in their recurrent training and company procedures in case of emergency landings, given they had to effectively shut down their airline for almost 2 days now!

[sn26567]

Warsaw Airport Fire Brigade and specialists from the LOT and Boeing continue the process of preparing the aircraft to remove it from runway. The airport is still closed...

[SN539]

Warsaw Airport Fire Brigade and specialists from the LOT and Boeing continue the process of preparing the aircraft to remove it from runway. The airport is still closed...

There is something I personally don't understand ... Is there only one runway in Warsaw Airport ? When looking on different maps or 'google earth', it seems there are two runways ... In that case why does the airport remain closed ???

[sn26567]

There is something I personally don't understand ... Is there only one runway in Warsaw Airport ? When looking on different maps or 'google earth', it seems there are two runways ... In that case why does the airport remain closed ???

There are two runways crossing each other. If the plane is at the intersection, or if it has damaged one runway up to the intersection, both runways should be blocked.