The Federal Aviation Administration said that a Delta Air Lines flight landed with its “nose landing gear up” at Charlotte Douglas International Airport in North Carolina on Wednesday morning. CLT Airport shared the incident in a post on Facebook, noting that no injuries were reported, but the runway was closed while crews with the airport worked on removing the plane from the runway. All passengers were bussed off the plane and taken to the terminal.
According to a statement from Delta on its website, the flight, operated on a Boeing 717, departed from Atlanta around 7:25 a.m. There were 96 customers, two pilots and three flight attendants on board: “As it approached CLT, pilots received a ‘nose gear unsafe’ indication. The crew initiated a missed approach procedure to further investigate the indication,” The airline said that initial reports show that the crew flew by the air traffic control tower in Charlotte so that air traffic controllers could visually inspect the plane. That observation indicated the nose landing gear doors were open, but the nose gear itself had not come down. The plane landed at 8:58 a.m. EDT in Charlotte with the nose gear up
Delta said in a statement to CNN: “Nothing is more important than the safety of our customers and people. While this is a rare occurrence, Delta flight crews train extensively to safely manage through many scenarios and flight 1092 landed safely without reported injuries. We apologize to our customers for their experience.”
The FAA, as well as the National Transportation Safety Board, will investigate why the nose gear did not come down during landing.
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