A FedEx Airlines Boeing 767 cargo plane landed at Istanbul airport on Wednesday without its front landing gear but managed to stay on the runway and avoided casualties, Turkey’s transport ministry said.
Video footage showed sparks flying and smoke billowing as the front of the plane hit the runway before being doused with firefighting foam.
The Boeing 767 aircraft, flying from Paris’ Charles de Gaulle airport, told the control tower at Istanbul airport that its landing gear struts had failed to open and it landed as instructed by the tower, the ministry said in a statement.
Airport rescue and fire crews were alerted before the landing, but no one was injured. The ministry did not give a reason for the malfunction. FedEx said in a statement that it was coordinating with investigators and would “provide additional information as it becomes available.”
The aircraft involved is nearly 10 years old and is a Boeing 767 freighter, one of the most common freighter aircraft based on the 1980s-built 767 passenger model.
The runway was temporarily closed to air traffic, but other runways at the airport were still operating normally, airport operator IGA said.
The news comes a week after an emergency plane that derailed a Delta Air Lines flight shortly after takeoff from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York reportedly washed ashore near the beach house of a lawyer whose firm is suing Boeing over safety concerns.
