Look: Passengers exit flight using jet slide after plane lands without gear extended

Passengers aboard a Delta flight had to disembark using the jet slide on Wednesday after their plane landed at Charlotte Douglas International Airport without part of its landing gear extended.

Photos from the scene show wheels on the ground under the wings, but the nose of the aircraft on the runway. An inflatable slide extends from a door of the plane and firefighters appear to be helping passengers disembark on the slide.

“I’ve been travelling for work over the past 10 years — going down that slide is one of the coolest things,” said passenger Chris Skotarczak, who was travelling to his Charlotte office from Buffalo, New York.

Skotarczak said if he hadn’t seen the plane’s shadow without the nose wheel down and been told to brace for an emergency landing, he would have thought nothing was wrong.

“The pilot told us, we’re going to land, we’re going to hear a big thud and we’re going to hear a lot of grinding,” Skotarczak told the Associated Press. “But it was almost smoother than a regular landing.”

Skotarczak was one of 96 passengers, two pilots and three flight attendants on board the Boeing 717 aircraft that left from Atlanta and was headed to Charlotte.

No injuries were reported and all passengers were taken to the terminal. The airport said it was working to remove the aircraft and reopen the runway.

“Nothing is more important than the safety of our customers and people,” Delta Air Lines said in a statement. “While this is a rare occurrence, Delta flight crews train extensively to safely manage through many scenarios and flight 1092 landed safely without reported injuries.”

The airline said it was now focused on helping to remove the plane and helping passengers get to their final destinations, and it is fully cooperating with the Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board investigations.

The trouble began when pilots received a “nose gear unsafe” indication as the plane approached the Charlotte airport and so they flew by the air traffic control tower so controllers could visually inspect the plane, Delta said in a statement. Controllers saw that the nose landing gear doors were open, but the gear hadn’t descended and the pilots landed the plane without the nose gear.

The crew calmly led the passengers to the emergency chutes at the two exits after the emergency landing.

Less than four hours after the landing, Skotarczak, the passenger from Buffalo, was at work, but only with his cellphone and a bottle of water. Passengers were asked to leave everything else on the plane as they left, and he put his wallet in his backpack so he wouldn’t have to sit on it the whole flight.

“I was totally going to buy a lottery ticket, but I can’t,” he said.

Skotarczak and his wife are heading to Europe on vacation next week, and he said his wife asked if he would be OK flying again.

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