A Delta flight carrying 96 passengers made a dramatic emergency landing after its front landing gear failed

• A Delta Air Lines plane carrying 96 passengers made an emergency landing in North Carolina on Wednesday.
• The aircraft was unable to deploy its front landing gears, and hit the runway with its underside.
• One passenger said getting off the plane using an inflatable slide was “one of the coolest things.”

A Delta Air Lines flight made an emergency landing in North Carolina on Wednesday after its front landing gears failed to deploy.

The Boeing 717, which departed from Atlanta, was approaching Charlotte Douglas International Airport when it experienced an issue with its landing gears, WCNC Charlotte reported.

The pilot notified the air traffic control of the problem, saying that the plane had an unsafe nosewheel with “104 souls on board,” including 96 passengers and five crew members, per air-traffic communications that WCNC Charlotte obtained.

One passenger on board told WCNC: “Initially we were going down to land and we got 30, maybe 50 feet from the runway, and the pilot sped up and kind of took off again, he didn’t want to land.”

“That was kind of the first sign of, ‘Oh, something must be pretty wrong.'”

After circling the airport multiple times, the pilot managed to land the plane safely on the runway without its front landing gears. 

Airport officials confirmed to WCNC Charlotte that there were no injuries reported.

A video that was taken by a passenger and uploaded to WCNC Charlotte’s Instagram page showed the situation inside the plane during the landing. Everyone onboard was silently bracing for impact while holding onto the seats in front of them.

“That was not bad at all,” a man can be heard saying in the video as the plane skidded to a halt on the runway.

Another passenger, Chris Skotarczak, told AP News that the landing was much smoother than he expected.

“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 said. “But it was almost smoother than a regular landing.”

Photos of the plane circulating on Twitter show the aircraft tilted to the front, with its nose touching the runway on its underside. An inflatable slide was deployed at the front entrance of the aircraft to allow passengers to get off.

“I’ve been traveling for work over the past 10 years — going down that slide is one of the coolest things,” Skotarczak told AP News.

—Breaking Aviation News & Videos (@aviationbrk) June 28, 2023

Delta Air Lines issued an apology to its customers in a statement published on its website.

“We appreciate that they left behind their luggage and personal items to enable a quick and safe evacuation and we’ve been working to reunite customers with those items. We continue to extend our personalized support to these customers,” the statement read.

Delta CEO Ed Bastian also wrote on his LinkedIn account to express his gratitude to the crew members while apologizing to the passengers.

“Our crews train extensively for situations like this and I’m proud of their professionalism in landing the aircraft safely. To our customers onboard, please know that your safety is our No. 1 priority – always,” Bastian said.

The cause of the landing gear failure is still under investigation, WCNC Charlotte reported. 

A representative from Delta Air Lines did not provide any additional comments but told Insider that the company would keep its website updated when more information becomes available.