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Old 11th Jul 2001, 03:38
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hold-at-malby
 
Join Date: Jul 2001
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This is the report I read...
The first visit of an Antonov An-12 to Exeter proved rather eventful today.
LZ-SFK of Air Sofia suffered an undercarriage collapse on landing on runway
26 at 1:30pm. The aircraft bounced on landing and regained the air. On it's
second contact with the ground the right undercarriage collapsed and the
right wingtip contacted the ground. It slewed to the right some 110 degrees
or so and came to rest on the northern taxiway after travelling some
distance across the grass. Pieces of the aircraft, incuding substantial
sections of undercarriage, were left on the runway and the grass in it's
wake. The runway and some runway lights were also damaged. The crew of 12
were able to walk away apparently unharmed. Exeter Airport was closed for
some time and flights were diverted to Bristol. Once the aircraft had been
inspected by the Air Accident Investigation Branch it was unloaded and, when
lifting equipment was made available, moved as the CAA had declared that it
was too close to the runway to allow normal services to resume. Flight
number SFB4401 was inbound from Casablanca with 8 tons of "theatrical
props" - said to be weapons used during the making of a film. It is
fortunate that the aircraft did not crash further down the runway as it
could have slewed into several parked aircraft, including Nigel Mansell's
Citation. It looked a very sad sight with it's right wingtip touching the
ground and the left pointing skyward. Expect it to be at Exeter for quite
some time.
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