PIA 747 Manchester Landing

Yesterday I posted a photograph depicting Pakistan International Airlines 747 (AF-BAT) being followed back to the terminal by fire crews. I am unsure of what was going on but this is how it is from my picture. Excuse the quality of pictures and terminology that may feature in this report as Im not really terminology guru !

The 747 came in to land as normal. The first thing that seemed quite strange was the fact it appeared to be further down the runway when its rear wheels connected. As it tried to put down the front wheels it seemed to almost appear to be taking off by the fact the nose began rising again. By the time it came past the viewing park the front wheels still hadn’t touched and the plane appeared to be just “cruising” on the rear gear. Finally, just past the AVP the front wheels finally touched and the usuall roar of reverse thrust followed. The 747 stopped at the end of the runway and the all the fire crews passed us and shot off to the end of the runway. At this point it was also noticed that airport busses had been scrambled and halted on the edge of the apron, pressumably for the 747. The aircraft remained at the end of the runway (just out of sight to the AVP) for about 10 – 15 mins whilst being attended to by the fire crews. At this point a SNBA BAE 146 and KLM 737 terminated their landing, pulled up and flew over the airfield. Eventually the 747 taxied back past the AVP to the terminal with the fire crews in procession. At this point the busses turned back to the terminal, which confirms they must have been preparing for the 747.

It may be (remember I am no expert here) that the 747 was struggling with the wind. There were some quite gusty spells yesterday and possibly could have coincided with the 747 trying to put down. As somebody stated earlier the fire crews could have been called to the brakes. Bearing in mind anyone who has been to the AVP at Manchester will know it isnt that far away to the end of the runway eastbound and the fact that by the time the a/c passed it still hadnt put down.

Anybody out there (pilots maybe) able to shed some light on what could be going on?

I have included two pictures of the afformentioned Jumbo in ‘action’.

Ironically the within half an hour the Kilkeny Ryanair 732 had aborted a take off and returned to the terminal for some reason or another too. (this was on the other runway – so i cant see it having anything to do with the 747 and debris.). It returned about an hour later and took off succesfully.

G.