A globally qualified Australian pilot with 60 years experience says the terrifying situation that unfolded at Newcastle Airport on Monday, where a plane was forced to land on its belly, is more common than you might think.
About 12.20pm on Monday, a 13-seater commercial charter plane skidded to a stop on the wet runway at Newcastle Airport.
A crowd had gathered to see the tense descent, and more than 22,000 people were tracking the plane on FlightRadar24 after news broke of a landing gear malfunction about 90 minutes earlier.
Shortly after takeoff about 8.30am, the 50-year-old pilot from Queensland reported the landing gear had malfunctioned.
On board were a married couple in their 60s. The plane circled Newcastle Airport burning fuel for hours, took a jaunt out to sea and glided onto the tarmac in a textbook manoeuvre with no injuries to report.
Captain Byron Bailey flew fighter jets in the Air Force, the largest planes for Emirates and now jets around billionaires. Mr Bailey said the pilot did well on Monday, but airmen and women were trained for such scenarios.
Now 80 years of age and still flying, Mr Bailey said the pilot on Monday came in a little fast so he could turn off the props and minimise damage to the plane.
“He did good, and if the runway’s wet that’s good; which it was,” Mr Bailey said.
“The pilot did a good job … You can’t get certified if you can’t do it (land wheels-up).”
Mr Bailey could not estimate how many light aeroplanes landed on their bellies each year in Australia.
“It’s not really an emergency. It is in a way … It doesn’t always make the news.”
“It’s not uncommon.”
He estimated one-in-a-thousand wheels-up landings ended in significant damage or injury. A plane landed wheels-up at Bankstown recently, and it happened at rural air strips like Mount Isa, Mr Bailey said.
It was a Beechcraft B200 Super King Air plane involved on Monday.
“Our King Air aviation fleet is getting old. Things start to happen. It’s not dangerous, it’s not a real emergency,” Mr Bailey said.
He explained the Beechcraft ran on kerosene fuel; as he had experienced first hand, a kerosene-run plane could be struck by lighting and not burst into flames.
The plane circled burning fuel on Monday to be as light as possible for landing, Mr Bailey said.