WARSAW, Poland - You may have heard a song 'flying without wing' by Westlife . However, in Warsaw, Captain Tadeusz Wrona landed Boeing 767 plane without wheels at Warsaw international airport, gaining instant hero status in Poland. The Boeing airliner carrying 231 people from Newark, New Jersey U.S. landed on its belly Tuesday in Warsaw after its landing gear failed to open, triggering sparks and small fires. No one was hurt, but some passengers sobbed as they prayed for a safe landing.
Wrona discovered there was a problem before touching ground. The plane circled above the airport for about one hour before descending without lowering the wheels, said Przemyslaw Przybylski, a spokesman for the Warsaw airport. - The plane, escorted by two F-16 fighter jets, landed with nearly empty fuel tanks after dumping fuel in preparation for the emergency landing, LOT spokesman Leszek Chorzewski said.
- The Polish pilot hailed as a hero for his smooth emergency landing of a Boeing airliner remained modest on Wednesday in his first public appearance, saying he felt "huge relief" once his passengers evacuated the plane, but wondered whether he could have done better.
- Passengers on board the plane described Tuesday's landing as so smooth they thought they had landed on wheels.
- However, sparks, smoke and small fires under the plane erupted on landing, and emergency workers immediately doused the plane with water.
One reporter asked him about the exceptional landing. Wrona joked he heard a passenger complain from the back about feeling a bump. That elicited chuckles from the reporters.Several Facebook pages sprang up immediately on Tuesday to express admiration for Wrona, with some calling him a "superhero".
"Fly like an eagle and land like a crow," runs one phrase coined by fans on Facebook, a play on the word "wrona", which in Polish means crow.
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