Wheels missing on plane after another emergency landing for Chinese budget carrier Capital Airlines
Landing gear problems force aircraft to divert to Shenzhen in second flight crisis for airline in three days
Two wheels were missing from a Macau-bound Chinese passenger jet after it was forced to make an emergency landing at Shenzhen airport on Tuesday, aviation authorities said.
The airport at Shenzhen, about 40 kilometres (25 miles) northeast of Macau, shut one of its runways for three hours to accommodate the emergency landing.
It was unclear how the plane was able to land safely in Shenzhen at about 11.58 am after aborting a scheduled landing in Macau.
The flight, which had taken off from Beijing, was operated by Capital Airlines, the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) said in a statement on its website. Capital Airlines is a subsidiary of Hainan Airlines.
It was the second emergency landing for Capital Airlines in three days after mechanical problems forced another flight by the budget carrier to return to Kunming 50 minutes after taking off on Sunday.
The airline said the front landing gear of the A320 involved in Tuesday’s flight was damaged as it tried to land in Macau in bad weather, prompting the pilots to divert to Shenzhen.