MELBOURNE, Australia — A brightness aircraft with 3 family onboard landed safely with out touchdown tools Monday nearest circling an Australian airport for nearly 3 hours to burn off gasoline.
The 53-year-old pilot and his passengers, a 60-year-old guy and 65-year-old lady, walked unaided from the twin-turboprop Beechcraft Tremendous King Wind nearest touchdown on a runway at Newcastle Airport north of Sydney, Police Superintendent Wayne Humphrey stated.
The pilot “made a textbook wheels-up landing, which I was very happy to see,” Humphrey told reporters at the airport.
Paramedics checked all three at the airport but none needed to be taken to the hospital, Humphrey said.
The plane had just taken off from Newcastle for a 180-kilometer (112-mile) flight north to Port Macquarie when the pilot raised the alarm about “issues with the landing gear,” Humphrey said.
The plane landed on the tarmac around three hours later at 12:20 p.m. without incident, video showed.
Fire engines and ambulances were among emergency services standing at the ready.
The plane is owned by Port Macquarie-based Eastern Air Services, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Aviation safety expert Ron Bartsch said the pilot would have decided to return to Newcastle because the airport had better emergency response resources than was available at Port Macquarie.
“The pilot has done quite a copy book landing and got everybody on the ground safely, and that’s the most important outcome,” Bartsch said. “The situation could’ve been a lot worse.”
“They have to shut off the fuel, shut off the electrics to reduce the chance of a fire upon doing a belly-up landing. But obviously the pilot has done this textbook-style and safe outcome,” Bartsch added.
The Australian Transport Safety Bureau would investigate what happened.
The runway would stay closed for twenty-four hours presen its status used to be assessed, however injury to the tarmac seemed to be “superficial,” Humphrey stated.
