Flight incident: Nose gear of Satena Airlines plane collapses as flight full of passengers prepares to take off from airport in Colombia

A plane’s nose gear collapsed while it was preparing to depart from an airport yesterday (Wednesday 1 May). A Satena Airlines flight was backtracking on the runway for departure and was turning around, almost having finished the line up, when the nose gear collapsed. 

The incident occurred at San Andrés International Airport. According to reports, all 45 passengers and four crew disembarked the aircraft without injuries and Colombia's Technical Direction of Civil Aircraft Accident investigation has opened an investigation.

Breaking Aviation News and Videos shared a video on X, formerly Twitter, showing the plane tilted downwards into the runway with the disembarked passengers standing around. It said: “SATENA ATR-42-500 nose gear collapses while preparing to depart from San Andres International Airport in Colombia.

“The nose gear appears to have retracted just when the aircraft was about to begin its takeoff from the runway. All 45 passengers and four crew disembarked without injuries.”

One user responded to the post saying: “Thank god they are all safe”. Another user added: “I'm not an aviation expert, but guessing this is a better scenario than collapsing on arrival. Glad everyone is safe.”