Nobody was hurt as an airplane of the Iran Airlines made an emergency landing due to mechanical problems at Beijing Airport at 9:33 am Thursday, civil aviation authorities said.

Director of the General Administration of Civil Aviation of China (CAAC) Yang Yuanyuan said the airplane is now parking on the runway and no one was injured.

There are 154 passengers and 26 crew members on board the IR800 airplane, according to the Iran Airlines office in Beijing.

Beijing Airport officials said the crew on the Teheran-Beijing-Tokyo flight detected mal-functioning of the hydraulic pressure system of the landing gear shortly after taking off from the Beijing Airport. As they attempted to make an emergency landing at the airport, the frontal part of the landing gear crashed into the runway, said airport security head Lu Changcheng.

The airport authority is to issue a press release about the accident soon.

The flight is making a stopover in Beijing enroute from Teheran to Tokyo, according to the Iran Airlines office in Beijing.

(Xinhua News Agency January 15, 2004)