Plane with 3 aboard lands without landing gear after burning off fuel

MELBOURNE, Australia — A light plane with three people aboard landed safely without landing gear Monday after circling an Australian airport for almost three hours to burn off fuel.

The twin-turboprop Beechcraft Super King Air had just taken off from Newcastle Airport north of Sydney for a 180-kilometer (112-mile) flight north to Port Macquarie when the pilot raised the alarm, officials said.

The plane landed on the tarmac around three hours later at 12:20 p.m. apparently without incident, video showed.

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Fire engines and ambulances were among emergency services standing at the ready.

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A police statement said the plane had “mechanical issues,” while Australian Broadcasting Corp. cited an unnamed police officer saying the landing gear had failed. The plane is owned by Port Macquarie-based Eastern Air Services, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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Aviation safety expert Ron Bartsch said the pilot would have decided to return to Newcastle because the airport had better emergency response resources than was available at Port Macquarie.

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“The pilot has done quite a copy book landing and got everybody on the ground safely, and that’s the most important outcome,” Bartsch said. “The situation could’ve been a lot worse.”

“They have to shut off the fuel, shut off the electrics to reduce the chance of a fire upon doing a belly-up landing. But obviously the pilot has done this text book-style and safe outcome,” Bartsch added.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau would investigate what happened.

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