The brave pilot of an Iran Air Boeing 727-200 prevented a major disaster by successfully bringing down the plane full of passengers without the front landing gear at Tehran’s Mehrabad Airport.
On October 18, Captain Hooshang Shahbazi was in command of the IranAir 727 as it made an emergency landing at Tehran’s Mehrabad Airport.
The Iran Air Boeing 727-200 was performing flight IR-742 from Moscow Sheremetyevo (Russia) to Tehran Imam Khomeini (Iran) with 94 passengers and 19 crew.
The plane was on approach to Tehran’s Imam Khomeini Airport around 15:20, local time, when the crew did not receive a down and locked indication for the nose gear and aborted the approach.
Following unsuccessful troubleshooting the crew decided to divert to Tehran’s Mehrabad Airport where a low approach confirmed the nose gear was not extended. The crew subsequently performed a landing without the nose gear on runway 29L at about 16:00 local time and came to a standstill on both main gear and the nose of the aircraft.
A video of the incident shows the plane coming in, with the front landing gear still retracted and nothing to stop the front of the plane hitting and grinding along the runway.
A slight wobble of the wings as the plane came down hinted at the difficult job Captain Hooshang Shahbazi had ahead of him – to land a stricken plane in a crosswind without hitting the breaks on the runway and bringing the nose down too hard.
The video also shows how Captain Shahbazi not only landed the plane but kept the nose up for as long as possible while the aircraft slowed down.
An Iran Air spokesman said: “Following unsuccessful troubleshooting the crew decided to divert to Tehran’s Mehrabad Airport, where a low approach confirmed the nose gear was not extended.
“The crew subsequently performed a landing without the nose gear on runway 29L and came to a standstill on both main gear and the nose of the aircraft.
“The aircraft was evacuated, no injuries occurred.”
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