Emergency as plane’s landing gear fails

Australia held its breath as the light aircraft’s pilot pulled off an emergency landing at Newcastle Airport at around 12.22pm, with a small bit of smoke seen coming off its base as it hit the ground.

Superintendent Wayne Humphrey addressed media at 1.40pm today and said the pilot of the Beechcraft Super King Air performed a “wheels-up landing”.

“Around 8.30am the aircraft departed from here (Newcastle Airport) and was heading to Port Macquarie,” Supt Humphrey said.

“(It) experienced some issues with the landing gear and as a result of that, the pilot, a 53-year-old Queensland man, decided to stay around the airport until he resolved the issue on aircraft.

“It was determined the aircraft landing gear would not come back down and he stayed here and burnt off fuel.”

Supt Humphrey said two passengers were on board, a 60-year-old man and a 65-year-old female, both from Tuggeranong on the Central Coast.

Neither passenger or the pilot suffered any injuries nor were they taken to hospital.

“After some hours in the air, about 90 minutes burning off sufficient fuel, he made a textbook wheels-up landing, which I was very happy to see on the runway behind us,” Supt Humphrey said.

“It was a joint operation between RAAF, NSW Police, Ambulance NSW and the fire brigade – everybody was there and it ended really well. Thank goodness.”

The plane had been circling the airport after the pilot reported the plane’s landing gear had failed just before 10am. It had been bound for Port Macquarie in what was supposed to be a short 26-minute flight.

“About 9.30am today, emergency services were called to Newcastle Airport following reports of an aircraft with mechanical issues,” NSW Police media said in a statement this morning.

“Officers attached Port Stephens Hunter Police District are on scene.”

According to Flight Radar 24 real-time footage, at one point the aircraft could be seen flying over the ocean, before turning back.

The pilot was were reportedly trying to burn fuel before attempting to land.

As it headed for Newcastle Airport, the light plane appeared to power down as it approached the runway, before it eventually touched down and slid to a stop.

Supt Humphrey said following the emergency landing the pilot and two passengers got out of the plane themselves.

“It was a great result. Really well done by the pilot,” he said.

“I could hear him (pilot) on the air – he sounded very calm to me.”

Supt Humphrey said the airport will be closed for 24 hours until the aircraft is recovered.

“But if they get it off before then, well it will be reopened,” he said.

“I’m led to believe the early indication is that if there was any damage on the runway it would be superficial at best, but that will be a matter for the air force and Newcastle Airport to work through.”

Professor Ron Brash, who is former head of safety for Qantas, said it’s likely that when the pilot was retracting the gear on departing from Newcastle, it gave an unsafe indication that the gear wasn’t completely up.

“And that’s why they elected to land at Williamtown,” he told ABC News.

“Normally, when they’re so difficult, you have the emergency gear extension, and obviously that was inoperative or the landing gear was stuck in the intermediate phase.”

Prof Brash said the aircraft is “very reliable” and the primary gears always have, if not one redundancy, two redundant systems.

“But obviously, the pilot has done quite a copybook landing and got everybody on the ground safely, and that’s the most important outcome,” he said.

The plane is owned by Eastern Air Services, which runs small trips between Lord Howe Island, Port Macquarie, Newcastle and the Gold Coast.

The company declined to comment at this stage.

Its services also include scenic flights from Port Macquarie or Lord Howe Island, including whale watching flights and airfreight services to anywhere in Australia.

It is headquartered in Port Macquarie.