One of the world’s largest planes suffered serious damage after it skidded off the runway during a botched emergency landing in Russia.
Miraculously, no casualties were reported on the aircraft or on the ground despite part of an engine crashing through the roof of a warehouse near the airport on Friday.
The An-124 Ruslan cargo aircraft immediately got into trouble and lost radio contact after taking off from Novosibirsk airport in Siberia.
The colossal Soviet-designed plane with 14 crew inside circled before crash landing, skidding off the runway, causing damage to its front wheel and the left wing.
According to witnesses, smoke was pouring from one of its jet engines as it landed.
Very much so, given the state of the fuselage after the uncontained engine explosion, looks like what ever when in on one side, went all the way through and out the other side as well, looking at the photo's...!
Crew did a hell of a job getting that back down on the ground, given the massive loss of electrical system as a result and the gear failing on touchdown....
Translation of the pilot's description of events......
The second engine exploded and cut electric wires, so we lost all the electricity. And we returned to the aerodrome of departure on an airplane having a total electric failure. We lost all the communication, both intra-cockpit and with the ATC. We just gained 300m altitude at that point. We were a crew of 6, and other technical crew of 8, they were in the rear cabin. We took a decision to return to the aerodrome of departure, visually, we tried to establish visual communication but that didn’t work. We took a decision to land on RWY25, since it was a critical situation and we took a decision to land as soon as possible. Since we didn’t have a lot of altitude and excess of thrust too. There was a complete electric failure, brakes didn’t work, reverse didn’t work either since the wires were cut. The landing was soft, there was no damage during the touchdown, all the damage was due to the runway excursion. The gauges in the cockpit didn’t work, from the angle of attack we figured out the speed was about 280, it was a calculated airspeed. We haven’t even raised the flaps at that time, just raised the gears and we heard a bang. We still had control, but the electrical system failed completely.
One of the world’s largest planes suffered serious damage after it skidded off the runway during a botched emergency landing in Russia.
Miraculously, no casualties were reported on the aircraft or on the ground despite part of an engine crashing through the roof of a warehouse near the airport on Friday.
The An-124 Ruslan cargo aircraft immediately got into trouble and lost radio contact after taking off from Novosibirsk airport in Siberia.
The colossal Soviet-designed plane with 14 crew inside circled before crash landing, skidding off the runway, causing damage to its front wheel and the left wing.
According to witnesses, smoke was pouring from one of its jet engines as it landed.
Good job with what would have likely been a very heavy bird as well, good news there was plenty of run off space at the end of the runway.
If its true it put engine pieces straight through the fuselage and out the other side, you wouldn't have wanted to be sitting in the way of that either!