NASSAU, BAHAMAS — A Western Air flight heading into Freeport was forced to make an emergency landing shortly after take-off this morning after the aircraft’s nose landing gear failed to fully retract, airline executives confirmed.
Sherrexcia Rolle, the airline’s vice-president of operations and general counsel told Eyewitness News that shortly after take-off around 7 am, the captain of flight 701—an Embraer 145 aircraft which was heading to Freeport, Grand Bahama—received an indication that his nose landing gear did not fully retract.
“After completing his climbing sequence and the appropriate checks, he performed a few low approaches to allow for a visual inspection from the Tower (and team members on the ground) to confirm the position of his landing gears,” said Rolle. “Once they indicated that the landing gears appeared to be down and locked, they landed safely.”
Rolle noted that the flight attendants instructed passengers to brace as a safety precaution. The flight attendant can be heard giving those instructions to passengers in a viral video capturing the aircraft’s descent and safe landing at the Lynden Pindling International Airport (LPIA), to the relief of the 32 passengers onboard.
“They landed safely and all is well with passengers and crew. The majority of the passengers opted to proceed on the next flight to Freeport. Of course, we are completing our internal review and reports of this flight and the indication the captain received,” Rolle said.
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