Plane Landing Gear Collapse Triggers Panic At Kyrgyzstan Airport

(All flights were suspended from the Airport. Photo Credit: The Sun Nigeria)

Panicked passengers escaped down emergency slides after a plane’s landing gear dramatically collapsed during take-off.

Footage of the major malfunction shows a Tez Jet passenger plane tilted on its side amid screams from passengers in Kyrgyzstan.

It is understood that the MD-83 plane’s left rear landing gear collapsed just as the aircraft was about to take off on Tuesday, July 7.

Emergency services quickly scrambled to the stricken aircraft as fuel began spilling onto the runway at Manas Airport, Bishkek.

All 181 people on board were safely evacuated via inflatable slides, and miraculously, there were no serious injuries.

There were no reports of a fire, though several passengers suffered cuts and bruises when the aircraft’s left wing wedged into the tarmac during the collapse.

Video footage shows people, including a baby, sliding down the plastic chutes to safety.

Bewildered passengers then gathered on the tarmac, looking on at the damaged plane.

The white wing lay limp on the ground as debris and jet fuel pooled around the aircraft, while the lower empennage, or tail of the plane, was completely torn off.

The international airport has since been shut down.

A report into the incident said that since the aircraft was accelerating slowly, the pilots were able to bring it to a stop.

After stopping, the aircraft tilted onto its left wing, causing a jet fuel leak, with fire services on the scene.

The aircraft, bearing tail number EX-80017, is believed to have been manufactured in December 1999.

It was a McDonnell Douglas MD-83, part of the twin-engine MD-80 family of narrow-body airliners widely used by airlines in the 1980s and 1990s.

Manas International Airport is one of the largest aviation hubs in Central Asia, and the aircraft was on a domestic flight from the capital, Bishkek, to Osh.

This comes barely a month after a new Boeing 787 Dreamliner bucked on the tarmac at Frankfurt Airport.

Footage shared on social media showed the front landing gear of that plane collapsing, causing the nose to dive, on June 4.

An airport worker standing on a ramp attached to the plane, and another only a few feet from the cockpit, narrowly escaped being hit as the incident unfolded, with both shown rushing away from the scene as it crashed to the ground, leading to the cancellation of the flight.

A Lufthansa spokesperson revealed that several employees were injured and are currently receiving medical treatment.

Plane’s landing gear dramatically COLLAPSES during take off pic.twitter.com/vBdyIwyzVG

— The Sun (@TheSun) July 8, 2026