Plane lands on a wheel and a prayer

Some passengers prayed as an Air New Zealand jet circled Auckland Airport yesterday with suspected damage to its landing gear.

The flight from Hong Kong with 156 people aboard landed safely after pilots made a low pass at 200m so engineers on the ground could make a visual check of the nosewheel.

An Air New Zealand spokeswoman said the pilot had thought he heard a noise from the landing gear in the nose after leaving Hong Kong.

Passengers said they were told about the potential problem 20 or 30 minutes before the scheduled 11.15am landing.

"The pilot said they were taking every precaution," said Lynda Stewart, who was returning from a trade fair in China.

She said some people were praying "for sure".

Passengers clapped and cheered when the plane landed 30 minutes later than scheduled, said Ms Stewart.

Also aboard was Lisa Blakey of Hawkes Bay, returning home from six months' volunteer work in Israel with her grandmother.

"The captain was really good about it. Excellent," she said.

"[He told us that] as we were taking off from Hong Kong someone realised there may be something wrong with the front of the aircraft. He said he was going to do a flypast to make sure everything was okay.

"I think it was the way he explained it - he was just so calm and relaxed, it didn't bother me."

In September, a passenger jet with crippled nose gear made a dramatic landing at Los Angeles.

The JetBlue Airbus A320 spent three hours dumping fuel before touching down, its nose gear setting off a shower of smoke and sparks as it dragged along the runway.

Passengers watched the drama on their in-flight television screens.