Narrow escape for Mayawati's plane

Former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati had a narrow escape late Sunday when the front wheel of her charter plane got stuck during landing, officials said Monday.

The incident took place at Lucknow airport when the Bahujan Samaj Party supremo was on her way back from campaigning in Maharashtra. She was accompanied by her close aide S C Mishra.

As the plane neared the runway, all attempts to unstuck the front wheel came to a naught, forcing the pilot to do "something similar to belly landing", an airport official told IANS.

The pilot alerted the air traffic control of the technical glitch and fire tenders, security personnel and an ambulance were rushed to the runway, officials said.

The pilot succeeded in landing the plane, officials said.