Daily Mail - An aeroplane carrying 230 people was involved in a terrifying landing earlier today following a catastrophic equipment failure.
The pilot was forced to bring the Boeing 767 in to land at Warsaw airport with no wheels after all its landing gear failed. The
aircraft skidded along the tarmac on its belly, sparks flying, and a
fire broke out in the starboard engine before it came to a halt.
Incredibly nobody on the flight, which came from Newark, New Jersey, was injured in the crash and the captain, Tadeusz Wrona, has been hailed a hero by Poland's President Bronislaw Komorowsk.
Emergency
services were waiting at the end of the runway to deal with any
potential disaster. Fire crews swiftly dealt with the fire in the engine
while all the people on board escaped without injury down the emergency
chutes.
The pilot had radioed
ahead to let the control tower know there was a problem with deploying
the landing gear. After several attempts, however, it was decided that
the aircraft would have to come down without any wheels.
While
the plane circled the Polish capital for an hour, dumping excess fuel
and repeatedly trying to solve the problem, ground crews prepared for a
crash landing, closing the airport to all other flights and clearing
nearby streets. Fire crews also sprayed the runway with foam in a bid to
prevent a fire from breaking out.
The
pilot lifted the nose of the aircraft slightly as it approached the
tarmac. As it slid along the runway, smoke billowed from the
undercarriage followed by bright flashes from under the engines.
When
it came to a halt, fire engines that were waiting along the sides and
at the end of the tarmac rushed towards the plane, dowsing it with foam.
Meanwhile, passengers were quickly taken off down the inflatable chutes
on either side.
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