MULTAN: A Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) flight, PK-387, made an emergency landing at Multan airport on Wednesday after the cockpit failed to show the opening of rear left wheels.
The rear wheels, called the undercarriages, opened before the landing but the opening of the left undercarriage was not indicated in the cockpit.
The pilots of the plane informed the air control tower, prompting an emergency at the airport. The fire department was also alerted and the plane was landed in the emergency field. All the passengers remained safe.
The aircraft, Boeing 737, was carrying around 45 passengers from Islamabad to Multan. The plane was further Karachi-bound with 118 passengers.
Before the emergency landing, the plane flew for around an hour to consume fuel in order to prevent fire. It was scheduled at land at 3:10pm but landed at 4:20pm.
The plane received a manual indication by the air control tower that the wheels have opened, but the pilot, Captain Shahid, refrained from taking any risk and landed safely in the emergency field.
The passengers of the plane appreciated the cabin crew for their professional handling and dealing with the passengers.
On landing, the plane was refuelled and serviced to fix the problem before taking off for Karachi.
Earlier on Sunday, the fuel tank of one of Shaheen Air planes leaked minutes before take-off from Lahore airport, while two tyres of another aircraft from the same airlines burst during landing in Karachi.
COMMENTS (23)
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@Jal: before providing a landing clearance, the ATC asks 'check gears down and locked', in this case the crew did not get an indication of 3 green lights - gears can be down but not locked and can collapse on landing..so a pilot cannot rely on the visual check performed by ATC - no way an ATC can confirm if its locked.
If i remember correctly, this practice of inquiring if the gears are down and locked was introduced after the PIA 747 belly landed at Islamabad airport - landing gears were deployed when the crew realized that gears aren't down, but they collapsed before they were fully extended and locked..
What a third class piece of journalism. There is no such thing as an emergency field. Anywhere ! You have runways where aircraft land. Btw how is the landing an emergency landing ?!? The aircraft circled to get within the landing weight and after confirming that the gears were down landed. This is ridiculous !
@SM: Hahaha.. Your comment made my day.
PIA= Perhaps I Arrive
Pakistan is becoming a joke. We cant do anything right and we keep claiming democracy is the "best revenge." It is revenge perpetrated on the people of Pakistan by the rulers. I am so sick and tired of Pakistan's perpetual crisis, which does not go away. It gets worse and we the people allow it be constantly voting in the same crooks again and again.
Good prudent work from pilot
@Farzan:
I agree. Now that ET has a pciture of a 777, they will keep putting it up here!
All they have to do is go to Airlinersnet.com, type in PIA and their entire fleet will be there with some very nice picturees!!
But that takes effort, maybe 20 seconds in all. Who cares what they put up?!
@Sarmad Hassan:
Yes, they can do that, make a "low-pass".
The interior miniter should put higher ups of PIA on exit list because this will improve the flight safety and put an end to air incidents.
This is a standard SOP at the ATC that all landing aircraft are viewed by the ATC crew through binocular - in this case why this SOP was ignored. Why did not even the pilot asked the ATC to check?
Dont worry you guys we have missile that can fly 700 kms be happy for that
@Sarmad Hassan: You can, but ATC can't tell if the gears are down and locked. Gears in down position are no good unless you have them locked (they'll collapse on landing otherwise)
Thats the difference between a professional pilot and airline.. He didnot take the risk and only landed after all fuel was consumed.. Read the report of air blue crash to see that its pilot did with himself and passengers!!
@Mo!: Its sad to see PIA behave this way. I have personally seen this and since than I call PIA as Pathetic Incompotent Awfull. Pathetic comes from a very pahetic union and management and poor state of affairs with in PIA. Incompetent comes from every aspect of service the organization offers withan imcompotent management at the helm of the organization. Awfull comes from the dispicable service this organization provides to its customers. Some times it feels that they are doing a favour to the customers taking their money and flying them.
Atleast show the right plane in the picture! Thats a 777 in the picture not a 737
an incident happened few days back; but didn't heard from any one. That was regarding the exposure of the fuel tank of the PIA plane. got any details ?
Pakistani aviation has become a joke. There used to be a time when the industry had a bit of a reputation, now I cant trust any single Pakistani airline. These daily occurences are simply ridiculous.
Honestly, Its beyond disgust now! Serious risk and disaster management exercises are required to be taken by the airlines in Pakistan.
not an expert in aviation but I think in such cases, pilots ask control tower to have a look at the landing gear via binoculars and tell them if its deployed.
He did not circle around to spend fuel; he was probably dumping fuel to get under the maximum allowable landing weight. Standard procedure.
Now see this havoc situation of PIA. Shame on it
Airplanes crash, train stations are blown up and buses are riddled with bullets. :(
Something very similar happened to a PIA flight, a couple of years back. The flight took off from Karachi and was scheduled to land at Multan early in the morning but the landing gear (front wheel) did not open. Front wheels of an aircraft can be opened manually, I guess, but because lack of emergency facilities at Multan airport, the aircraft was taken back to Karachi.
My parents were on this flight and I was waiting to pick them up at the Multan airport. I could see the plane coming down and then suddenly gaining altitude and going away.
Upon contacting the PIA head office at karachi, I was told, 'Machine hai jee, utar gai to utar gai, hum kia kar saktay gain' (It's a machine, we can't do much).
Look at the guts of a PIA employee. Rather than counselling a worried family member of the passengers in danger, he was rude and inconsiderate.
This incident was also reported in local news papers along with a few prominent passengers' names.