The crew of a FedEx Boeing 767 had to land with their nose gear retracted, after getting an unsafe gear indication. There were no injuries.
This accident happened on Wednesday the 8th of May. It involved flight FX-6238, departing from Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport (LFPG). The flight’s destination is Istanbul Airport (LTFM) in Turkey.
This is a back-of-the-clock flight, departing from Paris at 3:36 AM. On the day of this accident, the FedEx 767 crew left Paris on time, making what appears to be a routine departure using runway 09R.
Then after spending most of their cruise at FL390, the crew set up an approach into Istanbul’s runway 16R. However, the FedEx crew abandoned their first approach at approximately 1,650 feet, because their 767 gave them an unsafe gear indication.
FedEx 767 Stops Safely on the Runway
The crew climbed back up to 3,000 feet, as they worked through their checklists. About 20 minutes after their first attempt, the pilots flew another approach on the same runway, so that ground observers could give them visual confirmation of the status of their landing gear.
They got as low as 700 feet (MSL), before climbing again to 3,000 feet. Another 15 minutes after that, the FedEx crew landed their 767 on runway 16R, carefully allowing the nose of the aircraft to touch the runway.
The aircraft stopped safely on the runway, and fire crews quickly rushed to the aircraft. There were plenty of sparks as the aircraft touched down but no fire, after fire crews sprayed water and foam near the nose gear. The crew exited the aircraft safely. There are no reports of any injuries.
Istanbul airport has four parallel runways, so it didn’t need to close after the accident. The aircraft involved in this event is a nine-year-old Boeing 767-300F, with registration N110FE. FedEx is the first and only operator of this 767.
For the past month or so, this particular aircraft, named “Margo”, had been flying almost exclusively between European airports. In total, FedEx currently operates 137 767s, with more on the way. All of these jets are factory-made freighters, not conversions of passenger jets.
