Passengers Injured In Iranian Airlines Boeing 737-400 Gear Collapse

A Caspian Airlines Boeing 737-400 has suffered a gear collapse on landing at Isfahan in Iran. The left main gear of the aircraft collapsed on touchdown, causing the plane to veer to the right and exit the runway. The aircraft was evacuated via emergency slides, leading to five passengers being injured.

There aren’t a whole lot of Boeing 737-400s in regular passenger service anymore, with ch-aviation recording just 74 presently active out of a once global fleet of almost 500. But in Iran, where airlines have been hampered by sanctions restricting the purchase of new aircraft, many of these classic narrowbodies are still regular workhorses.

For one such aircraft, yesterday’s flight didn’t go quite to plan, after it suffered a landing gear collapse as it touched down. The flight, operated by Caspian Airlines, was traveling from Mashad to Isfahan, both in Iran, with 117 passengers and nine crew onboard, according to the Aviation Herald.

Flight RV-6904 touched down on runway 25R at just after 17:00 local time, but the left hand main gear collapsed immediately on contact. The loss of the landing gear caused the plane to swerve to the right, veering off the runway and coming to a stop with the nose gear off the paved surface.

With the plane listing at an angle, evacuation proceeded via emergency slide. Reports suggest that three female passengers received minor injuries as a result of the slide evacuation, while two male passengers had serious injuries including fractured bones.