Aircraft makes an emergency landing in Shenzhen

A Capital Airlines plane with a possible broken landing gear made an emergency landing on Tuesday morning in Shenzhen, Guangdong province. Five passengers received minor injuries.

The flight, JD-5759 from Beijing, was supposed to land in Macao at 11:16 am, but the crew suspected its landing gear had been damaged when passing through a wind shear during descent.

Wind shear is a drastic change in the direction of two masses of air. It can destabilize an aircraft or drive it forcefully to a different altitude.

After passing through the wind shear, the plane climbed again, and the crew immediately began emergency procedures. The pilot decided to make an emergency landing at Shenzhen International Airport, the airline company said on Sina Weibo.

It said all 157 passengers and nine crew members were evacuated after the plane landed safely.

The airport said the plane made the emergency landing because of a "mechanical failure".

One runway was temporarily closed after the incident, resulting in delays to some other flights. Operations resumed at around 4:30 pm, after the airport authority moved the damaged plane, it said.

The Civil Aviation Administration of China said in an online statement that the two front wheels of the plane were missing after the landing. It said five passengers who "felt uncomfortable" were sent to the hospital for checkups.

The administration has launched an investigation into the incident.

No other details were given, but an online photo taken at the scene shows the plane with no nose wheels. No other major damage was apparent.

"What we have experienced? It's life and death," said a man in an online video showing some passengers running away after leaping out onto the aircraft's evacuation slides. The video showed two firetrucks nearby, and a woman can be heard saying the wheels of the plane had fallen off.

This was the second emergency landing for Capital Airlines in just three days. On Sunday, one of the company's planes made an emergency landing on a flight from Kunming, Yunnan province, to Hangzhou, Zhejiang province. Passengers said the plane declined rapidly for about 20 minutes and that there was smoke in the cabin.