Charter flight from Kabul suffers landing gear collapse during touchdown

An Omni Air International charter flight, reportedly carrying US soldiers from Kabul to Washington D.C, had its left-hand landing gear collapse as it touched down to refuel in Romania on Friday. 

The Boeing 767 took off on Friday from Afghanistan and made a scheduled stop to refuel at Bucharest’s Baneasa Airport. 

Photographs and a video shared on Twitter show the plane’s emergency slides were deployed and that fire trucks surrounded the aircraft once it came to a stop. 

Aviation reports stated at least 80 American soldiers had been on the flight and were being repatriated. 

AeroInside, reported that the aircraft landed at the airport’s runway with all of its gear struts down and locked. “However, a few seconds after a standard touchdown, the plane had a collapse of its left main gear.

“The jet then skidded on its right main gear and left engine cowl. The nose gear lifted again to a stop on the centerline of the track. Altogether, 80 people were on board the plane when the incident happened.”

AeroInside stated that the aircraft was evacuated via slides but no casualties were reported.