Light plane pulls off fiery belly landing at Gold Coast Airport
A landing gear failure in a light plane has resulted in a fiery touchdown at Gold Coast Airport with emergency services expecting the worst.
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A light plane has been involved in a fiery landing at Gold Coast Airport after its landing gear failed on Tuesday night.
The Beechcraft 58 Baron conducted a belly landing sending sparks flying after circling Coolangatta for almost an hour to burn up fuel.
Queensland Ambulance sent two units to the airport in preparation for the worst, but a spokeswoman said the two male pilots were assessed at the scene and declined transport to hospital.
“You prepare for the worst and hope for the best basically with those sorts of incidents,” she said.
A Gold Coast Airport spokeswoman said the light aircraft had experienced a “technical issue” with its landing gear upon approach to the airport.
“The experienced pilots on board landed the aircraft safely with the landing gear retracted,” the spokeswoman said.
“There are no ongoing impacts to airport operations.”
The six-seater aircraft, registered VH-YDC, is owned by flight training and charter company Air Gold Coast.
A Virgin Australia Boeing 737 also experienced a landing gear issue on a flight from Perth to Port Hedland on Tuesday afternoon.
It’s understood the landing gear failed to retract after takeoff but pilots managed to resolve the issue mid-air. However they were advised to return to Perth and then spent over an hour burning off fuel before landing safely.
Virgin Australia was organising another aircraft to get passengers on their way as soon as possible.
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