Four people cheated death when a light plane they were traveling in crash-landed at an airport in northwestern Zambia's Solwezi district, the Zambia Daily Mail reported on Saturday.
The plane, a Staravia, registration GS-ACS crash-landed on Friday morning at Solwezi airport after its wheels failed to eject from the undercarriage at touchdown, according to Daily Mail.
Eyewitnesses who were at the airport waiting for the arrival of Zambian President Rupiah Banda who was visiting the district to commission a mining project, told the paper that the aircraft lost control after two of its wheels got jammed, leaving it to hobble only on the front wheel, adding that the wheel that was working shoved the light aircraft into the bush when it touched down, Xinhua reported.
According to eyewitnesses, the plane produced some sparks and that the passengers survived because the aircraft got stuck in the sand when it careered off the runaway.