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In the second case of a malfunctioning flight in Myanmar in less than a week, gripping video has emerged of a passenger plane landing without its front wheels, skidding along the tarmac after touchdown.

Myanmar National Airlines flight UB-103 – an Embraer-190 – was carrying 82 passengers and a crew of seven on a morning flight when it ran into problems on approach to Mandalay.

The crew found they could not extend the nose gear (front landing wheels) so they went around for a second landing attempt – only to run into the same problem.

The pilot then made a textbook landing in fine weather, keeping the nose of the plane up as long as possible. Finally, the nose of the plane touches down on the hard surface of the tarmac, grinding along the runway without its landing wheels, producing a cloud of smoke which swirled inside the cockpit.

The short 2.45-minute video shows the plane’s landing; then switches to interior footage showing the dramatic evacuation via slides.

Although the plane was damaged, all passengers and crew were fine.

Mandalay is popular with tourists. Its Kuthodaw Pagoda contains the world’s largest book.

The airline drama was the second recent instance of a flight running into difficulties on landing in Myanmar. The other case was last week, when a turbo-prop de Havilland Dash 8-400, operated by Biman Bangladesh, skidded off the runway and broke into three pieces while landing at Myanmar’s Yangon International Airport in bad weather. See: Plane skids off runway and breaks into three pieces

Written by Peter Needham