Pilot leaves trail of fire as they land plane with no landing gear

A pilot has been praised for their impressive skills after they managed to land a plane without a landing gear.

Say all you want about improvements in technology and auto-pilot keeping planes in the air, but at the end of the day, it's the (human) pilot who's responsible for the crew, customers - even the bags of peanuts.

There aren't many of us who could say we'd cope well when tasked with flying a giant piece of machinery through the skies, let alone one that's malfunctioning, so the fact this particular pilot made it look easy just makes the scene all the more impressive.

It's unclear where the dramatic landing took place, but footage shared online has been highly praised as it showed the plane coming in to land with no landing gear.

Pixabay

In case you're not up to date on all your aircraft lingo, the landing gear is the large 'leg' that comes down towards the front of the plane, and helps support it when it's not in the air.

Most people would probably recognise the gears as having wheels, though they can also be fitted with floats or skiis, depending on where they're operating.

Regardless of what they look like, the gear is vital in helping to absorb the impact of landing, and prevent the plane from coming straight down on its belly.

Unfortunately, however, the gear doesn't always work as intended.

It's rare, but the footage shared on Reddit is an indication of what can happen when the landing gear doesn't come down.

Caught on Tape TV/Reddit/u/Closed_Aperture

The pilot edged closer and closer to the ground in the video, but with no gear to absorb the impact, the bottom of the plane began to drag on the runway, causing sparks and flames to fly out behind it.

With no other way of getting back down to Earth, the pilot persevered and eventually came to a standstill, after which a ripple of fire ran along each of the plane's wings, as if for dramatic effect.

Given that it had essentially just crashed to the ground, the plane appeared in pretty good condition, prompting viewers to praise the person in charge.

"Jet fuel can't melt nerves of steel," one viewer wrote, while another commented: "I’ve had rougher landings on perfectly normal planes WITH landing gear."

Though such a malfunction is rare, it's not unheard of. In 2005, Jet Blue captain Scott Burke was forced to execute an emergency landing at Los Angeles International Airport after the plane's nose gear got jammed.

Burke managed to pull it off with skill, and no one was injured in the incident.