A FedEx Boeing 767-3S2F freighter made a safe emergency landing at Istanbul Airport on Wednesday after its front nose landing gear failed to deploy properly, authorities confirmed.
The cargo plane, operating as flight FX-6238 from Paris Charles de Gaulle to Istanbul, touched down on runway 16R at around 8:17 AM local time with its nose gear still retracted.
Videos show the aircraft skillfully landing on its main gear first before the nose gradually made contact with the runway, producing sparks but no fire.
“Immediately after the controlled landing upon the fuselage, the [situation] was brought under control by Istanbul airport rescue and firefighting teams, without any injuries or loss of life,” airport operator IGA said in a statement cited by FlightGlobal.
According to Turkish Transport Minister Abdulkadir Uraloglu, the two pilots aboard the 9-year-old 767-300 freighter, registered N110FE, were able to evacuate safely after the landing.
Uraloglu stated investigations into the gear failure incident are ongoing.
FedEx acknowledged it is cooperating with authorities, telling Reuters: “We are coordinating with investigation authorities and will provide additional information as it is available.”
Data shows the aircraft involved was a General Electric CF6-powered 767 freighter delivered new to FedEx in December 2014.
The cargo carrier operates a large fleet of over 130 Boeing 767-300F models for its global freight operations.
While landing gear incidents are infrequent, they require pilots to undergo extensive training to perform procedures like holding the nose elevated after touchdown to prevent further damage, as appeared to be done in this case based on videos circulated online.
Istanbul Airport’s runway 16R was temporarily closed until 3 PM local time as efforts were made to remove the aircraft from the runway surface. Other flight operations continued normally on the airport’s other runways.
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