A 50-year-old NASA research jet has performed an emergency “belly” landing, unleashing a torrent of flames and smoke as it skidded across a runway in Texas, new footage reveals.
On Tuesday (Jan. 27), the WB-57 research jet carried out a controlled crash on a runway at Ellington Field airport, near NASA’s Johnson Space Center outside Houston. The aircraft touched down at a relatively low speed and slid for several hundred yards before grinding to a halt. Local news site KHOU 11 captured a video of the event, showing plumes of yellow flames and white smoke periodically spurting from the plane’s underside due to extreme friction between the fuselage and tarmac.
This emergency was triggered by a “mechanical issue,” which prevented the aircraft’s landing gear from deploying prior to touch down, ABC News reported. While the plane sustained significant damage, the plane’s crew — consisting of two unnamed pilots — were unharmed, according to NASA representatives.
“Response to the incident is ongoing, and all crew are safe at this time,” NASA spokesperson Bethany Stevens wrote on the social platform X. “As with any incident, a thorough investigation will be conducted by NASA into the cause,” she added.
NASA’s WB-57 jets are part of its High Altitude Research Program, based at Ellington Field, and are capable of flying at up to 63,000 feet (19,000 meters) — nearly twice the altitude of commercial aircraft — for up to 6.5 hours. The jets carry two crew members, one to fly the plane and another who runs scientific experiments using specialized onboard equipment.
“Mission examples include atmospheric and earth science, ground mapping, cosmic dust collection, rocket launch support and test bed operations for future airborne or spaceborne systems,” according to the WB-57 website. In April 2024, the jets were also used to study the total solar eclipse over North America, and were able to extend the duration of totality by chasing the moon.
WB-57 jets are variants of the RB-57F Canberra — a bomber-reconnaissance hybrid that was developed by the U.S. Air Force in the 1950s and flew in conflicts such as the Vietnam War. These aircraft were lightweight and capable of carrying heavy payloads, which made them well suited to being converted into scientific vehicles.
NASA currently has three WB-57 jets: two that have been in operation since 1972 and one that was restored in 2013, after it was found in an Air Force “boneyard” in Arizona, according to Ars Technica. The three planes flew together for the first time in 2015.
It is unclear if the crashed plane was an original or the restored version. But the other two jets are currently grounded for respective inspections, meaning that all three planes are inoperable for the time being, according to Live Science’s sister site Space.com.
In the past, WB-57 planes have played a role in monitoring the exhaust plumes and reentries of NASA rockets, including the Titan, space shuttle, Delta, Atlas and Athena spacecraft, as well as SpaceX’s temperamental Starship rocket, according to Ars Technica.
The crashed jet was scheduled to do the same for the Artemis II moon rocket, which is prepped and ready to launch humans to the lunar environment for the first time since 1972 (when NASA also started the WB-57 program). However, given the damage to the aircraft, it seems unlikely that it will be repaired by the mission’s earliest possible launch date of Feb. 6.
