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belly landing

British  

noun

  1. the landing of an aircraft on its fuselage without use of its landing gear

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Example Sentences

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Video footage showed the plane making a belly landing - without its landing gear deployed - on the tarmac and skidding into a concrete barrier.

From BBC • Jul. 21, 2025

Huge crowds, bad weather, inability of some airline crews to reach their scheduling offices — even a Delta jet that made a belly landing in Charlotte, North Carolina — all contributed to the mess.

From Seattle Times • Jun. 27, 2023

According to two websites that track P-51s that are still flying, it made a belly landing away from the airport.

From Chicago Tribune • Sep. 17, 2011

The 4,500-mile trip took nearly two days, ended with a dust-raising belly landing in Wenatchee, Wash. Died.

From Time Magazine Archive

As we came in, we found we had a belly landing on our hands, so we skidded her in.

From A Yankee Flier Over Berlin by Laune, Paul

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