Thai ATR-72 nose gear collapse

A THAI Airways flight had to carry out an emergency evacuation of passengers today when its front landing gear collapsed during a landing in northern Thailand, but no-one was hurt, the airline said.
Flight TG198, an ATR-72 aircraft with 28 passengers and four cabin crew on board, encountered the problem as it was landing at Mae Hong Son on a regularly scheduled flight from Chiang Mai.
Mae Hong Son is a popular tourist destination near the border with Burma, 650km north-west of Bangkok.
“As the aircraft’s nose gear had collapsed, the pilot-in-command initiated safety procedure and evacuated all passengers from the aircraft, with no injuries,” said the airline.
A report by the state Thai News Agency said the landing gear failure caused the plane “to slide off the runway with a loud noise and a spark”, and that several passengers had screamed in panic.
Thai Airways said a technical team had been sent to the scene to investigate the cause of the accident.
It said ground transport was arranged for passengers who had been scheduled to make the return flight to Chiang Mai.