Hard landing Malaysian?

Mumbai: Close shave for 293 as three tyres of aircraft burst during landing

Jun2, (Mid-day): Pilot of the Malaysia Airlines flight from Kuala Lumpur to Mumbai managed to make a jerky but safe landing

Nearly 300 people aboard MH 194 (Kuala Lumpur-Mumbai) got a scare when three of the aircraft's tyres burst during touchdown on Sunday evening. The pilot of the Malaysian Airlines aircraft, however, managed to make a jerky but safe landing.

The flight, which had taken off from Kuala Lumpur around 6.25 pm, landed at the Mumbai airport around 11 pm on Sunday night. There were 280 passengers and 13 crew members on board. A senior airport official said, "Three rear tyres on the right side of the aircraft burst during landing. Some damage was also sustained by the undercarriage retraction mechanism.

The aircraft, which was parked in a bay near the cargo area will be taken to the Air India hangar for repairs." Officials said that, usually, the wheel is changed after tyre bursts and the flight can take off as per schedule.

In this case, however, since the retraction mechanism was damaged, the aircraft will be fit to fly only after repairs are done.
"Damage to the retraction assembly indicates that it was a hard landing," said an official. Till the time of going to press, Malaysia Airlines had not responded to mid-day's queries.