Fokker F100 forced to land without main gear

Conor108

Wow! That musta been scary

The crew of a ContactAir Fokker 100 on behalf of Lufthansa, registration D-AFKE performing flight C3-288/LH-288 from Berlin Tegel to Stuttgart (Germany) with 73 passengers and 5 crew, received an unsafe gear indication after lowering the gear on appraoch to Stuttgart, aborted the approach and entered a holding to troubleshoot the problem. The main gear could not be lowered despite 90 minutes troubleshooting, so that the crew was forced to land without main gear at 10:49 local (08:49Z). The airplane landed on its belly on runway 07 and was evacuated via slides.

Link with VIDEO!

Aviation Herald Link

highlydebased

AlekSmart

Some interesting and pertinent comments in the "opinions" of the Video/Photo coverage.

The issue of reducing the wages/salaries of front line staff coupled with what might be considered a lowering of maintenance awareness in Mainstream Civil Aviation should be a MAJOR issue.

This incident,along with the Hudson River ditching underlines the value of mature,highly trained crew when the pot starts to boil over.

Yet,from what is coming from various Industry media,the Airlines appear to be flirting dangerously with the concept of cost-reductions above all else ?