Nasal Passage
In Belgium, a Boeing 737 jetliner quite literally fell on its nose — and the airline behind it is stumped as to what happened.
As Dutch-language Het Laatste Nieuws indicates, the nose landing gear of the TUI airlines-operated 737, which had landed earlier on the morning of January in Brussels after a flight from Spain, appeared to abruptly collapse while the jet was parked.
Luckily, no passengers were on board the jet at the time, and the all-Boeing airline confirmed that there were no injuries sustained during the bizarre incident that quickly spread on social media after onlookers posted images and videos of the collapse.
Till I Collapse
In an interview with HLN, aviation journalist Luk de Wilde called the collapse “exceptional” — but said it probably doesn’t represent quite as huge a safety hazard as it would appear at first.
“When an aircraft lands, the landing gear retracts,” he explained, “and thanks to gravity and the weight of an aircraft, that will always happen.”
De Wilde conjectured that the cause was “probably a human error by maintenance personnel or the crew” — an admission that TUI itself does not seem ready to make.
“We will carry out an in-depth analysis of the situation in consultation with the authorities,” TUI said in a statement, “but we can already confirm that no technical problem is at the origin of this incident.”
Bad News Bears
The timing of this nasal failure couldn’t be worse for TUI, which in recent months has taken media heat after repeated incidents drew scrutiny in the wake of Boeing’s own safety issues and internal crises following last January’s door blowout incident.
Just a few weeks ago, one of the airline’s flight attendants was hospitalized after stepping out of the cabin without realizing its stairs had already been retracted, falling hard to the ground.
Back in August, passengers on another TUI flight were forced to evacuate after a fire broke out in the cargo hold of yet another 737 after it had landed. Belgian comedian Gunter Lamoot told HLN after that incident that the scene was particularly strange because the landing had gone off without a hitch, and people had even applauded the pilots before the evacuation order was issued.
Between these anxiety-inducing occurrences and the two separate reports about TUI’s safety failures issued in the latter half of 2024, things aren’t looking great for the destination airline, which primarily shepherds passengers from Belgium and the United Kingdom to various vacation spots.
Then again, things are probably worse for the manufacturer that provides its planes.
More on plane panic: Former NASA Astronaut Puzzled by Metallic Orbs He Encountered While Flying
