A RED Air MD-82 operating from Santo Domingo to Miami suffered a left main gear collapse on landing 21 June. The aircraft then caught fire after veering off the runway, coming to rest near the T8 exit from Runway 9 just short of Runway 30. Thankfully, there were only a handful of non-lifethreatening injuries reported.
Red Air flight 203 departed Santo Domingo at 19:36 UTC (15:36 local time) and landing in Miami at 21:38 (17:38 local time). Based on video from Miami Airport Cam, smoke could be seen trailing the aircraft after it touched down and began its landing roll.
At some point further down the runway, the left main landing gear collapsed and the aircraft exited the runway, passed through the grass to the left of the runway and impacted the Runway 30 glideslope antenna.
The flight was operated by RED Air, a low cost carrier based in the Dominican Republic, owned by Venezuelan airline Laser Airlines. The aircraft that operated flight 203 was a 32 year old MD-82 registered HI1064. It was originally delivered to American Airlines in 1990 and operated with the airline until 2014. In the 2017 it was placed into service with Laser Airlines and then transferred to RED Air in 2021.
Following this incident, the airline now has a fleet of two active MD-82s and one inactive MD-81.
NTSB investigation
The US NTSB released its preliminary report on 20 July detailing the sequence of events and the damage to the aircraft and structures on the airfield. According the report, the pilots felt an “increasing vibration” from the left main gear after touchdown and during the landing roll the left main gear collapsed. The airplane pulled to the left, exiting the runway and impacting the Runway 30 glide slope equipment shelter. During this runway excursion the nose gear and right main gear also collapsed. The NTSB recovered and successfully downloaded data from the aircraft’s Flight Data Recorder and Cockpit Voice Recorder.
![An example full flight summary response from the Flightradar24 API: { "data": [ { "fr24_id": "0987654321", "flight": "SK1415", "callsign": "SAS1415", "operated_as": "SAS", "painted_as": "SAS", "type": "A20N", "reg": "SE-DOY", "orig_icao": "ESSA", "orig_iata": "ARN", "datetime_takeoff": "2023-01-27T05:15:22", "runway_takeoff": "12R", "dest_icao": "EKCH", "dest_iata": "CPH", "dest_icao_actual": "EPWA", "dest_iata_actual": "WAW", "datetime_landed": "2023-01-27T06:15:10", "runway_landed": "27L", "flight_time": 3600, "actual_distance": 1007.74, "circle_distance": 6245, "category": "Passenger", "hex": "4A91F9", "first_seen": "2023-01-27T05:06:22", "last_seen": "2023-01-27T06:18:10", "flight_ended": "true" } ] }](https://www.flightradar24.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Flight-summary-API-cover-768x378.jpg)
