The two pilots of a Delta Air Lines flight from Atlanta to Charlotte, North Carolina, have been hailed heroes after they managed to successfully land the 22-year-old Boeing 717 jet without the front landing gear after the wheels failed to lower from the belly of the plane.
A spokesperson for Delta said initial reports from the scene indicated that while the doors of the nosegear had opened, the wheels had remained locked in the up position.
All 96 passengers and 5 crew members onboard Delta flight DL1092 managed to evacuate the aircraft unharmed via emergency slides on Wednesday morning. The aircraft remains stranded on Runway 36 Left at Charlotte International Airport following the incident at 8:40 am.
Preliminary information suggests the pilots received a warning in the cockpit that the nosegear was not safe, so they performed a low-altitude flyby of the airport tower to give the air traffic controllers the opportunity to see if the nosegear had actually deployed.
“That observation indicated that the nose landing gear doors were open, but the nose gear itself remained in the up position,” a spokesperson for Delta explained.
Unable to get the landing gear to lower, the pilots still managed to successfully land the aircraft on the runway.
“Our focus is now to take care of our customers on this flight, including retrieving their bags and seeing them to their final destinations safely,” the airline said in a statement. “We apologize to our customers for what they experienced.”
An airport representative said that no injuries were reported and all passengers were bussed to the terminal. A spokesperson noted that the aircraft could remain stranded on the runway for the rest of the day and that they were expecting delays and cancellations as a result of the accident.
