Delta Flight Lands In North Carolina Without Nose Gear

Screenshot: ABC News/WSOC TV

Amid the chaos of flight cancellations this morning — further down the eastern coast, a Delta flight experienced another untimely mishap of its own. Multiple news outlets report that the Wednesday morning flight had a successful landing after its nose landing gear failed to deploy.

Delta’s Luggage Only Flight

The Boeing 717 left Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport at 7:25 a.m. Wednesday morning for a short flight to Charlotte Douglas International Airport. Just before landing, the flight crew encountered a problem: the nose landing gear was malfunctioning. Rather than continue to circle while figuring out a solution, the pilots made the risky decision to land the plane.

Luckily, both pilots, three flight attendants and all 96 passengers were able to walk off the plane without any injuries, at least physically. Though I’m sure there were some shaken nerves. Delta said in a statement that this kind of thing doesn’t happen often, but their pilots and crews are trained to handle this kind of thing when it comes up.

While this is a rare occurrence, Delta flight crews train extensively to safely manage through many scenarios and flight 1092 landed safely without reported injuries. Our next focus is to take care of our customers on this flight, including retrieving their bags and seeing them to their final destinations safely. We apologize to our customers for what they experienced.

Officials at Charlotte Douglas International Airport issued a statement saying one of the airport’s runways are closed as crews work “to remove the aircraft and reopen the runway.”