Pilot’s view on landing gear failures and belly landing risks

A Thai pilot, and former president of the Thai Pilots Association, said today that there is little to no chance that the pilot of a plane would land without knowing that the landing gear had failed.

Sanong’s comments were in response to the devastating crash of a Jeju Air flight, which left Bangkok for South Korea on Sunday.

Sanong Mingcharoen explained to Thai PBS that the aircraft systems will automatically warn the flight crew about the status of the landing gear when the plane descends to a certain altitude. Even if the hydraulics fail, the gear can still be lowered manually.

At least 179 people are presumed dead after the crash at South Korea’s Muan International Airport on Sunday morning, according to the Yonhap news agency quoting firefighters. So far, only two survivors have been extracted from the wreckage.

The Jeju Air flight was carrying 181 people when it crashed during an emergency landing attempt.

The Boeing 737-800, which had reportedly experienced a landing gear failure, had attempted a belly landing.

Sanong said that there are clear procedures regarding emergency landings with a landing gear failure. The captain must coordinate with the control tower at the airport and make the plane as light as possible, by flying circuits around the airport to burn off fuel.

The emergency landing must be attempted on the longest available runway and the passengers must be instructed to brace for impact, as described in the pre-flight safety briefing given by cabin crew on all commercial airlines.

He disclosed that belly landing is a very high risk manoeuvre, because the plane’s soft underbelly (and even the engines) will take the full force of the impact, instead of the landing gear. There is also a significant chance of fire or the aircraft breaking up.