Following a landing gear fault indication after take-off, the aircraft was returning to its point of departure when the incident occurred. No one was injured during the emergency landing, although the aircraft suffered significant damage as a result.
Emergency landing declared
Yesterday evening (Sunday, May 14th), a Cargolux Boeing 747 freighter aircraft operating a routine service from Luxembourg to Chicago was forced to return to its point of departure after the aircraft's undercarriage failed to retract after take-off.
The Cargolux Boeing B747-400F, registered LX-OCV, was operating flight CV6847 from Luxembourg Findel Airport (LUX) to Chicago O'Hare Airport (ORD) yesterday evening. Following a routine take-off and with the aircraft climbing out, the crew was unable to retract the plane's undercarriage.
Having noticed the fault, the crew elected to make a swift return to Luxembourg Airport. However, upon touchdown, the right-hand center undercarriage wheel bogey assembly detached entirely and subsequently struck the aircraft's rear fuselage as it did so.
Video footage posted to social media (see below) clearly shows the four-wheel assembly detaching from underneath the center of the fuselage as it touches down on Luxembourg's runway 06.
The aircraft subsequently completed its landing rollout without further incident, coming to a halt on the runway.
Given that the aircraft was making an emergency landing, the airport's fire and rescue service were already in attendance as the aircraft touched down.
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Following the landing incident, Cargolux issued a formal statement confirming the incident,
“Cargolux would like to confirm that one of its aircraft, B747-400F bearing registration mark LX-OCV, suffered a significant landing incident at Luxembourg airport on Sunday evening at 18:52. The aircraft was unable to retract its landing gear on take-off from Luxembourg. As a result, it was forced to safely dump fuel in order to return to land at the airport. Upon landing role, 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.”
Cargolux also confirmed that there were no injuries to anyone either on board the plane or on the ground due to the emergency landing. The company also confirmed that the relevant authorities have been informed of the incident.
Following the emergency landing, recovery efforts began immediately to remove the damaged aircraft from the runway. The incident forced the suspension and diversion of several scheduled services due to land at the airport while the damaged aircraft was removed from the active runway.
Following the plane's removal, and after a thorough runway inspection, the airport announced the reopening to operations just before 01:00 local time this morning.
Details of the aircraft involved
According to data obtained from ch-aviation, the aircraft involved in this incident (LX-OCV) is a 24-year-old Boeing 747-400F(SCD) first delivered to Cargolux in June 1999.
It is powered by four Rolls-Royce RB211-524 engines and has spent its entire flying career flying for the airline, albeit operated by its Italian subsidiary (Cargolux Italia) between 2015-2018. As of February of this year, the aircraft had completed 109,814 flight hours and 20,984 flight cycles. Its daily utilization is reported as 12 hours 42 minutes.
Before yesterday's incident, the aircraft had most recently flown from Dallas (DFW) to Luxembourg Airport, arriving at its destination on Saturday morning at 11:20 local time. With the plane having suffered significant damage to its landing gear and skin puncture damage to its rear fuselage, it remains unclear when it will return to service.
Not the first Cargolux landing incident recently
This most recent incident involving a Cargolux aircraft is not the first to befall the airline in recent weeks. Just last month, another of the carrier's Boeing 747-400 freighters, registered LX-ECV, operating from Dubai Al Maktoum International Airport (DWC) to Luxembourg, sustained minor damage after one of its left engines made contact with the runway on landing.
Following the engine pod making contact with the runway surface, the pilots initiated a go-around, and the aircraft landed safely on its second attempt.
With two of its 747-400 freighters now in maintenance following recent landing incidents, the airline will be hoping it can get both back in the air as quickly as possible.
What are your thoughts on this latest incident involving Cargolux? Let us know in the comments.
Sources: ch-aviation.com, Flightradar.com, Twitter