Air India Express flight IX938, a Boeing 737 MAX 8 operating from Hyderabad to Phuket, suffered a nose landing gear failure upon touchdown at Phuket International Airport at noon local time on March 11th, 2026.The incident resulted in a runway closure and the evacuation of all 140 people on board. No injuries have been reported at the time of writing.
Air India Express flight IX938
Departing from Hyderabad (HYD), India, at 01:12 UTC (06:42 local time), Air India Express flight IX938 was reportedly carrying 131 passengers, two infants, and seven crew members. The aircraft, a six year old Boeing 737 MAX 8 registered as VT-BWQ, performed the first flight of the day, having arrived from Guwahati (GAU) the evening before.
The flight cruised at flight level 370, passing over the Bengal Bay and Andaman Sea and reached its destination in 3 hours and 12 minutes. Flightradar24 data shows the aircraft touching down on runway 09 at Phuket International Airport (HKT) at 04:24 UTC (11:24 local time).
Hard landing in Phuket
Unverified, albeit credible, video circulating on social media shows the aircraft performing a hard landing. This was followed by a bounce before the aircraft again touched down on the runway. The aircraft then continued down the runway before coming to a stop. The airline later acknowledged that the nose landing gear had failed on touchdown. Images from the scene showed both nose wheels separated from the aircraft, with the main strut in direct contact with the runway.
The aircraft came to a stop and could not taxi clear. ADS-B continued to show VT-BWQ stationary on the runway until 05:44:54 UTC, until the transponder was turned off. This was approximately 80 minutes after touchdown.
Phuket Airport issued a NOTAM closing the runway until 14:00 UTC (21:00 local time). Phuket operates a single runway (09/27), meaning the closure halted all traffic at HKT for the duration.
Video of VT-BWQ landing at Phuket earlier todaypic.twitter.com/qAQkqaGAqO
— The Indian Aviation Guy 🇮🇳 (@TIAG747) March 11, 2026
The weather at the time of landing
The METAR (Meteorological Aerodrome Report) active at the time of landing:
METAR VTSP 110400Z 09010KT 030V110 9999 FEW020 31/23 Q1013 NOSIG
The wind, although variable between 030 and 110 degrees, was primarily 10 knots from the east—basically down the runway. Visibility was 10 kilometres or more and the pressure was equal to standard pressure at sea level.
What caused the incident?
The cause of the failure has not been officially determined. Whether the landing gear failure resulted from the hard landing, a pre-existing mechanical defect, or another factor remains unknown.
9 Responses
The video at least has the nose wheels before landing. After it bumps, it looks like it gets a tailstrike as well, not sure…
I watched the 18second video and conclude as follows. Having touched down onto its main wheels, the aircraft bounced up, tilted nose-downward and as far as I could see probably hit the runway with nosewheel only, then lifted off again briefly before settling finally on the runway. Not a surprise that the nosewheel came off.
An Indian domestic flight a few years landed nose wheel first. The subsequent investigation revealed the pilot was not properly trained.
FYI: A United 777 reg N204UA performed a go around at LHR 7:30am Thu 12th March. The flight was coming in from IAD.
Nose gear hit first on rebound.
Phuket is a crazily overloaded airport – I just was there two weeks ago. Only one runway, “nice” crosswinds and many times every 3 minutes a plane landing. Besides great beaches and hotels there, the whole island has become a “anarcho-capitalist mess” – a money pit for all of us – and mostly Russians at this time. No government or infrastructure improvement visible, but “taxe mafia” etc. After 25 years they just introduced a – 50% reliable – “airport bus” to some places.
Hence the airport fits the the whole island: you (pilots) have to be careful on your own – and Air India Express was not the only accident happening – surprisingly few considering the traffic competing nearly with Bangkok. Never again – airport or island, “same same” as the people say here – and look away from the mess.
The video shows the aircraft contact the runway and bounce then the nose drops forcing the nose wheel to contact the runway before the main rear landing gear. vertually doing a wheel barrow landing with all the force on the nose wheel possibly causing the failure.
The tech crew will have a lot to answer for when they confront the hierarchy at HQ. Seemed to have had a lot of speed as it came over the fence. If there were no 3 greens to indicate the landing gear was down and locked, whoever was doing the landing should have requested a go around and let ATC verify the situation. Tech crew seemed to be in a bit of a hurry.!!!
Where does it say there weren’t “three greens?”
In the video the gear as it passes over the beach is definitely down. It was the bounce and then the nose gear touching with a lot of force as the whole plane shifted from nose up, to nose down with all the weight on the nose gear. It appears that there was not an adequate “round out” for the landing. That resulted in the bounce. Also it was at 125 knots upon landing, that is not too fast for that a/c in fact it might have been a little slow which may have impaired the ability to do an adequate round out.