MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — A lightweight airplane with three individuals aboard landed safely with out touchdown gear Monday after circling an Australian airport for nearly three hours to burn off gasoline.

The dual-turboprop Beechcraft Tremendous King Air had simply taken off from Newcastle Airport north of Sydney for a 180-kilometer (112-mile) flight north to Port Macquarie when the pilot raised the alarm, officers mentioned.

The airplane landed on the tarmac round three hours later at 12:20 p.m. apparently with out incident, video confirmed.

Fireplace engines and ambulances have been amongst emergency providers standing on the prepared.

A police assertion mentioned the airplane had “mechanical points,” whereas Australian Broadcasting Corp. cited an unnamed police officer saying the touchdown gear had failed. The airplane is owned by Port Macquarie-based Japanese Air Companies, which didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.

Aviation security skilled Ron Bartsch mentioned the pilot would have determined to return to Newcastle as a result of the airport had higher emergency response assets than was accessible at Port Macquarie.

“The pilot has finished fairly a duplicate ebook touchdown and acquired all people on the bottom safely, and that’s crucial final result,” Bartsch mentioned. “The scenario may’ve been rather a lot worse.”

“They need to shut off the gasoline, shut off the electrics to cut back the possibility of a fireplace upon doing a belly-up touchdown. However clearly the pilot has finished this textual content book-style and protected final result,” Bartsch added.

The Australian Transport Security Bureau would examine what occurred.