Moment Air India plane belly slides along runway after losing wheel
Passengers experienced a terrifying arrival at Thailand’s Phuket airport after the plane nosedived onto the tarmac.
Flights at the airport, one of the busiest hubs in Thailand, were briefly disrupted after the Boeing 737 Max made its bumpy landing today, damaging its nose in the process.
The flight was operated by Air India Express, a subsidiary of Air India, the company involved in the Ahmedabad plane disaster that killed 260 people last year.
Today’s flight AXB938 from Hyderabad, India, suffered damage to its landing gear when it hit the runway, according to Phuke Airport officials.
Footage shows the plane with 133 people on board making a hard landing at the airport, which is just yards from the beachfront.
The aircraft left a trail of smoke behind it as it screeched to a halt without its nose wheel.
One passenger, who was filming the approach to the airport, appeared to drop his phone due to the impact.
After reaching his phone, he zooms in on an object next to the runway, thought to be the landing wheel.
Images show the aircraft with just the wheel fork left underneath it, and with a long skid mark on the tarmac where the metal jammed and dragged along the concrete surface.
The emergency services met the plane after the landing and passengers were able to disembark.
The airport was closed for hours before services resumed at 6pm local time.
A spokesperson for Air India Express said the plane ‘experienced an issue with the nose wheel.’
‘The crew followed all standard protocols, and guests were deplaned,’ they said.
The incident comes months after the fatal Air India flight 171 tragedy, which left only one survivor on board the doomed plane.
Air India has come under pressure as an investigation into the cause of the crash is ongoing, with officials reportedly leaning towards deliberate pilot action after a mechanical failure was ruled out.
Meanwhile, Air India Express, the budget arm of the parent airline, was told off by India’s aviation watchdog for allegedly not changing engine parts on an Airbus A320 plane, and falsifying records over it.
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