A PLANE suffered damage during a forced landing at Southend airport because its landing gear failed, an accident report has revealed.

The Beech 200 Super King was flying from Caen, France, to Stapleford Abbots, but diverted to Southend because of problems with its landing gear.

An Air Accidents Investi-gation Branch report, which has just been released, said after the aircraft left Caen, the "gear unsafe" light remained on and it was establised the nose landing gear was neither completely up nor down.

Attempts to use the emergency gear-lowering system failed. The crew decided to divert to Southend because it was the base for the operator's maintenance company.

Attempts to lower the landing gear were again unsuccessful and the emergency services, including the airport's own emergency staff, were alerted.

The crew succeeded in landing the aircraft on the runway with the two main landing legs, but the nose leg collapsed on touchdown, causing damage to the fuselage nose structure and the propeller blade tips.

There were no injuries to either the two crew or five passengers, three of whom were young children.

The co-pilot evacuated the aircraft and the adult passengers passed the children to him before they and the commander climbed out.

Investigators later found the nose gear had suffered from internal corrosion, affecting its operation.

The report is recommending that the company manufacturing the aircraft should review the maintenance requirements of the nose landing gear, including the frequency of inspections.