The images are impressive. On Saturday, a passenger plane had to land without wheels at the airport of La Rochelle - Ile de Ré (Charente-Maritime), due to a technical problem, reports Sud Ouest. The incident, which resulted in no casualties, lasted more than four hours and mobilized two bursts of air force fire.
Carrying two people, the plane had just carried out a mission to take aerial photos of La Rochelle. The pilot tried to land at the airport at midday on Saturday, but then realized that the landing gear was not working properly. It then regains altitude and turns while it finds a solution.
!!️Emergency landing of a Piper #PA31 - 13/01/2024
🔸At the end of a photo-taking mission, the pilots failed to extend the landing gear of the plane
🔸The crew landed on their stomachs, on a moss-lined runway in La Rochelle
🔸Not... pic.twitter.com/TtAG7cInnA
— Aero Gazette ✈️ (@AeroGazette) January 14, 2024
A "foam mat" on 800 m of track
In the early afternoon, the Air Force sent two bursts of fire for "an assistance mission" on this flight "in technical difficulty". They establish contact with the pilots and notice the locking of the wheels, reports France 2.
Yesterday, 2 Rafale of the BA118 carried out a flight assistance mission for the benefit of a PA31 in technical difficulty with its landing gear. The responsiveness of the Airmen and the coordination with the team at the La Rochelle airfield allowed the crew to escape unscathed. pic.twitter.com/JqPtGqLnWX
— French Air and Space Force (@Armee_de_lair) January 14, 2024
La Rochelle airport will then prepare to receive the aircraft. "The airport firefighters deployed a foam mat from a foam concentrate they have in their fire engine, on 800 m of runway," Thomas Juin, director of the airport, told the channel. This "is in order to limit the friction of the aircraft and the risk of sparks and flashovers".
Crew 'escaped unharmed'
The passenger plane finally landed at 17 p.m., more than four hours after the first attempt. In a video broadcast by Sud Ouest, we hear the worried comments at the time of the risky landing: "That's it, it's landing... Oh, fuck... ». In the footage, the plane can be seen scraping the ground for several dozen meters, before slowly stopping.
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The French Air Force applauded the manoeuvres carried out during this incident: "the responsiveness of the airmen and the coordination with the team at the La Rochelle airfield allowed the crew to escape unscathed."
Passenger plane incidents are not uncommon. In 2022, the BEA (Bureau d'enquêtes et d'analyses pour la sécurité de l'aviation civile), published 73 accident reports relating to light aircraft. Of these, 30 "had bodily consequences" with 9 dead and <> injured.