The Pilot of Qazaq Air Has Revealed Details of an Incident at the Almaty Airport

The incident took place at the Almaty International Airport on February 13, 2021. The aircraft’s pilot Erkin Nauryzbayev has told Kursiv edition what happened that day.

According to the pilot, it was a tough landing because the plane’s pneumatic landing gear was broken.

«We had flown that day on a DeHavilland Q400 model aircraft with P4-Air number. Even though the landing itself was good, the weather conditions were tough and the land surface was covered with ice. However, we had managed to make a landing approach safely as Kazakhstani standards require. There was no violation of the safety rules during the landing,» the pilot said. 

«Once the main landing gear had touched the surface, I had put the nose landing gear down and then I felt a sharp push to the right side. I used all my experience to hold the aircraft at the landing strip and I did it even though I realized that the landing gear was damaged. When the plane stopped we immediately asked for help. At the same time, we informed the crew about the damage. However, I must note that all phases of the landing were safe with no risk for passengers,» Nauryzbayev added.

Usually, people get very nervous during such incidents, but this time there was not even slight panic, according to members of the crew. When the ground service personnel arrived, all passengers had been safely delivered to the terminal with no injuries or pain. As Qazaq Air officials noted, safety is the number one priority for the company.

«Despite the incident, we are very happy with our fleet. Currently, we use DeHavilland Dash 8-Q400 type aircraft of the newest generation with the age of 3.5 years on average. The aircraft we had flown that time from Nur-Sultan to Almaty was made in 2019,» the pilot said.