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PIA Boeing
720-040B (AP-ATQ) rolling on Tehran-Meharabad Airport runway without the
nose wheel. On June 24,
1967 AP-ATQ, with 134 passengers onboard, under the command of Capt. S. Hamid Hussain was
operating Karachi-Tehran sector of Karachi to London
flight via Tehran, Moscow and Frankfurt. During approach to
Tehran's Meharabad International Airport, the pilot selected
landing gear down. On selecting the nose gear down, two main
green lights came ON but door red warning and gear unsafe
warning lights did not got out. The Flight Engineer was asked to
go down to compartment lower 41 and make a visual check of the
nose gear. He reported the nose gear was up while the doors were
open. The crew tried different methods but failed to break the uplock and nose gear remained stuck in fully up position. At
last the Captain decided to land with nose gear up. The Boeing
720B circled over the airport for full one hour and forty
minutes to dump the fuel.
To everyone's surprise, during
landing no impact was felt in the cabin; only a hissing sound
resulting due to friction of nose section against the runway was
heard. The damage sustained by the aircraft was comparatively
small and was confined mainly to the nose gear doors, the radio
antenna and the area forward of the lower 41 door. A minor fire
occurred on the nose gear doors due to friction with the runway,
but it was promptly extinguished by the airport fire authorities
and no further damage occurred.
AP-ATQ, which was delivered as brand
new aircraft to PIA on April 28, 1965, after this incident was
repaired and returned to service. It served PIA for many more
years and finally was retired and scrapped at Karachi Airport in
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