Boeing 767’s landing gear fails to open as it reaches Warsaw airport carrying 231 people from Newark in the US

A Boeing airliner carrying 231 people from the US landed on its belly in Warsaw on Tuesday after its landing gear failed to open, triggering sparks and small fires. No one was injured.

The pilots of the Polish LOT airlines flight from Newark, New Jersey, discovered a problem with the landing gear before touching ground in the Polish capital. They circled the 767 above the airport for about an hour before descending without using the landing wheels, said Przemyslaw Przybylski, a spokesman for the Warsaw airport.

LOT spokesman Leszek Chorzewski said the plane landed with nearly empty fuel tanks after dumping fuel in preparation for the emergency landing.

The fire brigade laid out special flame retardant foam for the plane to land on. On landing, sparks flew from the engines and small fires erupted under the plane but firefighters immediately put them out.

Passengers evacuated the plane. They were then taken to a medical centre for doctors to examine them, Przybylski said.

“There was no panic among the passengers. The cabin crew prepared them for the emergency landing well,” LOT airlines president, Marcin Pirog, told reporters.

Pirog said Captain Tadeusz Wrona and co-pilot Jerzy Szwartz carried out a “perfect emergency landing”, which prevented anyone from being injured. “It is the first time a LOT plane had to land without the landing gear out,” Pirog said, adding that such landings do not always end well.

The airport was closed until 8am on Wednesday. Flights which had been scheduled to land in Warsaw have been diverted to Lodz, Gdansk and Krakow.

The Polish president, Bronislaw Komorowski, congratulated and thanked the crew for their successful landing.

Source: the Guardian / AP (follow link for video)