Kilimanjaro International Airport in northern Tanzania was temporarily closed on Sunday after an Embraer 120 made an emergency belly landing on arrival, suspending normal operations for several hours. The aircraft, operating on a route from Serengeti to Zanzibar, landed without its gear fully deployed, and the airport later reopened the same day.
The Tanzania Airports Authority moved to secure the runway and airside area while the incident was handled, and the Tanzania Civil Air Accident Investigation branch opened a probe into the landing-gear failure. No casualties were reported in the accessible coverage, and video from the scene showed the aircraft sliding on its belly.
The disruption affected a key hub for Tanzania’s northern tourism corridor, including traffic linked to Mount Kilimanjaro and safari destinations. Local reporting indicated the airport remained closed for about five hours before operations resumed at around 16:30 local time. The cause of the malfunction has not yet been publicly established, and the operator identity has not been fully confirmed in the available reporting.