A Frontier Airlines flight left passengers fearing for their lives as it made a landing so hard it damaged the plane, but managed to safely touchdown after a second attempt.
The Federal Aviation Administration confirmed the incident, stating that on Tuesday, 15 April, Frontier Airlines Flight 3506 performed a go-around after an initial hard landing at Luis Marin International Airport in Puerto Rico.
It added that the flight returned for another approach and landed safely around 10.20pm local time.
“Passengers deplaned on the taxiway and were bused to the terminal,” the FAA added, “The Airbus A321 departed from Orlando International Airport.
The Airbus A321 was on its way from Orlando, Florida, to San Juan, Puerto Rico, when it came into land at Luis Munoz Marin International Airport before quickly climbing back up.
In a statement to The Independent, Frontier Airlines said: “On the evening of April 15, Flight 3506 from Orlando to San Juan experienced a hard landing upon arrival.
“The aircraft landed safely and there were no injuries to the passengers or crew. The incident is under investigation.”
During its first attempt at landing, the plane reportedly suffered a “mechanical problem” resulting in damage to the landing gear, the New York Post said, citing Puerto Rican newspaper El Nuevo Dia.
One passenger said on Tuesday they “landed in the worst shape in the world” after a “horrific experience.”
“For a few minutes I thought it was the end of our story here on earth,” Melani Gonzalez Wharton wrote on Facebook.
Ms Wharton was on her way back from travelling to Florida with her husband and their two sons, aged three and six, to visit the state’s theme parks.
“We were landing and the landing was [very bad], aggressive and at high speed, this caused one of the tires on the front of the plane to break and catch fire,” she said, adding that it all happened outside her window.
Videos posted by Ms Wharton show a view of a plane wing, while children can be heard crying in the background, then jumps to a clip of her disembarking the plane behind airport personnel.
Another passenger told ABC that passengers were trying to call their families to say goodbye and praying in the cabin amid the hard landing.
The plane reached the airport before initiating a go-around and circled the air several times just outside the airport before coming back to the runway for a second attempt, data from FlightRadar shows.
“It was landing too fast, all of a sudden it just slams in the floor, everybody starts screaming,” the passenger told ABC.
Another video shows the second attempted landing, with some passengers gasping and others applauding, with the aircraft now safely on the ground.
The plane had 230 people onboard at the time, and no injuries have been reported. The FAA said it will investigate the incident.
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