Plane (from US) carrying 230 passengers emergency lands in Warsaw

[jannyk]

Source: BBC

A Boeing 767 carrying 230 passengers has made an emergency landing at Warsaw airport after its landing gear failed.

The plane, which was travelling from the US city of Newark, in New Jersey, landed on its belly without its wheels. It had circled above the Polish city for over an hour burning up fuel as the airport was prepared for the crash landing.

The Polish airline Lot, which operated the flight, said all safety procedures had worked and that no-one was injured.

"The plane landed safely on its belly on the runway which had been sprayed with special flame-retardant substances. All the passengers disembarked, no-one was injured," Leszek Chorzewski, a spokesman for Lot, told AFP news agency.

Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-15543315

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WOW!

[Hassin Bin Sober]

1. Cool video at the link!

[jakeXT]

7. We had Iran Air without a nose gear just a couple of days ago

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5TDCjhp3Wfk

[Hassin Bin Sober]

8. Bah! My mother could land a plane missing only the nose wheel!

Just kidding. Thanks for the link!

[pennylane100]

15. I saw that one also, great job by pilot.

I also noticed that the jet engines were not in the same place as the LOT plane and did not get dragged on the runway.

[Maven]

2. WOW is right! Look at that landing!

The pilot has the plane hovering inches from the ground while it loses speed. Incredible!

[TwilightGardener]

3. Great pilot.

[No Elephants]

4. That pilot done great.

[dipsydoodle]

5. Amazing

Please to see it landed safely.

[LittleGirl]

6. Husband landed in Zurich this morning

wow. I would have freaked out if I had heard it was his flight.

phew. KUDOS to the pilots!

[valerief]

9. Kudos, too, to the ground crew who sprayed the runway. Thumbs down to the mgmt

who clearly cut back maintenance/maintenance expertise which caused the problem in the first place.

[jakeXT]

10. My Last Trip on LOT by MICHAEL HUDSON

Many airlines have cut back their flights to Riga since Latvia’s property bubble burst last year. There is no longer a Berlin connection, and Lufthansa’s prices rise sharply in summertime. The connection via Warsaw was $300 cheaper, and shorter (if one could believe LOT schedules, which I will not do again). I thought I would save my hosts the difference.

...

The rising anxiety of the passengers prompted various stewardesses to tell us about what they actually felt to be the problem. The summer time’s heavy traffic meant that LOT planes were used more intensively. This meant more breakdowns. In what seemed to be crocodile tears, they assured us that the delay was for our own safety. It happened about three times a month for the JFK–Warsaw leg, one stewardess explained, bringing our attention to the fact that the planes were quite old.

I sensed that employees were not altogether happy with LOT, but were taking the usual subtle Central European approach in just how to convey this fact to us by backhanded complements on how the airline was coping with the safety issue of making sure that their overused, run-down planes would not crash. Later, on the flight back to the United States, I was given another reason: To cope with the busy summer business, LOT had slashed the normal turn-around times. Holding up an aircraft even for ten minutes would not leave enough time to meet the next scheduled takeoff, causing backups all along the system. Insufficient leeway had been built into the schedule to hold up planes for even a few minutes to cope with the delays that in fact normally occur.

...

The passengers shared LOT horror stories among themselves. It became apparent that I had not done adequate market research before I agreed to take LOT. I hadn’t realized it was a cut-cost, cut-service airline, providing food vouchers for the inedible while working its staff and planes alike to the breaking point

http://www.counterpunch.org/2009/08/28/my-last-trip-on-lot/

[PavePusher]

12. Facts not in evidence?

Mechanical failures do occur all on their own, you know.

Edit: Just read jakeXT's post. You may have a valid point.

[valerief]

13. Accidents happen but in this day and age of airline cutbacks the most obvious conclusion is

poor maintenance and understaffing.

[liberal N proud]

11. Amazing!

Glad no one was injured

[Fire Walk With Me]

14. Bravo! I love happy endings!

:applause: