Aircraft

German investigators are to examine an Augsburg Airways Bombardier Q400 which landed at Munich today with its nose-gear retracted, after turning back from a service to Florence.

The aircraft was operating a Lufthansa Regional connection on the Munich-Florence route on behalf of the German Star Alliance carrier.

Local reports state that the crew discovered that the nose-wheel could not be deployed as the turboprop started its approach to the Italian city.

It returned to Munich in order to make use of the longer runway. Munich’s parallel runways are 4,000m compared with the relatively short 1,688m strip at Florence.

None of the 64 passengers and four crew members said to have been on board was injured. Augsburg Airways has not yet confirmed the identity of the aircraft involved.

The incident will heap further unwelcome attention on the Q400 following the high-profile main landing-gear collapses which affected two Scandinavian Airlines Q400s within three days earlier this month.

Japanese authorities ordered inspections on the country’s Q400s earlier this year after an All Nippon Airways aircraft landed with its nose-gear retracted at Kochi on 13 March. Investigators discovered that dislodged bushing in the nose-gear assembly had prevented the gear doors from opening.