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 None of the 49 passengers and crew of five on the Fokker 100 jet
were injured when the plane landed on its rear wheels before
lowering the nose onto the runway, the Brazilian Air Force said.
Airport fire crews foamed the plane to prevent fire. The pilot calmly declared an emergency and circled the Brazilian
capital to shed fuel and lower the weight of the aircraft, according
to a recording of his conversation with the control tower played on
Globo News television channel. "The plane suffered a hydraulic problem and the front landing gear
did not open, so the pilot did a belly landing," an Air Force
spokesman said. Avianca Brazil, which has grown rapidly in the Brazilian market by
opening regional routes, is owned by the Synergy Group controlled by
Brazilian airline entrepreneur German Efromovich. Efromovich also owns Colombian airline Avianca, which has joined
Taca of El Salvador to form conglomerate AviancaTaca, one of Latin
America's leading carriers.
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The emergency landing closed one of Brasilia's two runways, delaying
flights into Brazil's fourth largest airport.
(Reporting by Anthony Boadle; editing by Bernard Orr)
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