Significant damage was caused when the right body landing gear bogie disconnected after an emergency landing on a Cargolux Boeing 747-400F freighter.
A bogie is the attaching mechanism used when more than two wheels are attached to a landing gear strut.
On May 14, 2023, the LX-OCV-registered Boeing 747-400, which is 23 years old, was scheduled to fly from Luxembourg Airport (LUX) to Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport (ORD).
Cargolux stated in a news release that the aircraft was unable to retract its landing gear upon takeoff from LUX airport.
Cargolux 747-400 flight #CV6857 LUX-ORD lost part of landing gear during emergency landing at Luxembourg airport pic.twitter.com/cI7ouy0IbX
— c-wizz (@chrivoge) May 14, 2023
It was decided to head back to LUX airport. But because the big jet was loaded with fuel for a lengthy flight, it circled the region while dumping gasoline to get to the maximum landing weight.
Despite some difficulties, the plane arrived at LUX airport 52 minutes after taking off.
“On its landing roll its right body landing gear detached from the aircraft. The aircraft however came to a controlled stop and was attended to by the emergency services,” the carrier confirmed.
Various video footage of the aircraft’s landing has been uploaded to Twitter and shows the landing gear bogie detaching before flying away from the aircraft.
The flag carrier cargo airline for Luxembourg confirmed that no one on board or on the ground was hurt.
After the incident, LUX airport closed the runway, forcing numerous flights to divert.
On May 15, 2023, at 00:53 local time, the airport manager reported that the runway had reopened and that operations had resumed.
