Another sad end for a 732.....

[NickN]

Accident: Magnicharters B732 at Guadalajara on Apr 27th 2009, main gear up landing, engine fire

By Simon Hradecky, created Tuesday, Apr 28th 2009 06:38Z, last updated Tuesday, Apr 28th 2009 08:24Z


The crew of a Magnicharters Boeing 737-200, registration XA-MAF performing flight GMT-585 from Cancun to Guadalajara (Mexico) with 108 passengers and 8 crew, reported unsafe main gear while on approach to Guadalajara, went around and entered a holding to troubleshoot and burn off fuel for approximately 30 minutes. The gear trouble could not be resolved, the crew had to decide to land on runway 28 without main landing gear. The crew managed to touch down and bring the airplane to a stop on both engine pods and the nose gear. The left engine caught fire during the slow down, the fire was quickly doused by the emergency services attending the landing. All occupants were evacuated via slides.

The airport reported 4 passengers received minor injuries, one of them was brought to a hospital. The engine fire was the result of the landing without main gear.

The airplane sustained substantial damage to engines and flaps. Local Mexican Media report the tail number had been XA-MAS, however, that registration belonged last to a Boeing 707 (scrapped in the meantime). Multiple eyewitnesses observing the landing at Guadalajara reported the tail number to have been XA-MAF.

Photo here:
http://avherald.com/h?article=418c39e0&opt=0