An Iberia Airbus A320 was left stranded on the runway at Croatia's Split Airport after a nose landing gear problem on arrival, forcing the closure of the single-runway airport during one of the busiest weekends of the summer season.
The aircraft was operating flight IB945 from Madrid-Barajas to Split and landed on runway 23 at approximately 16:22 local time on August 1, 2026. During the roll-out the nose landing gear failed, and the nose wheels deviated by roughly 90 degrees from the runway centreline, leaving the jet immobilised and blocking the runway. The Aviation Herald reported the event as a case of burst nose tyres on roll-out.
All 178 people on board, 172 passengers and six crew, were evacuated safely, with no injuries reported. With the disabled aircraft sitting across the runway, Split Airport was forced to close, triggering diversions and delays at a single-runway facility already operating at high intensity during peak Adriatic holiday traffic.
Recovery teams removed the aircraft and the runway was inspected and cleared before reopening at around 18:30 local time, roughly two hours after the incident. Split has only one runway, so even a relatively short closure has an outsized effect on operations, rippling into cancellations and diversions across the afternoon.
Croatia's Air, Maritime and Railway Traffic Accidents Investigation Agency classified the occurrence as a serious incident and opened a safety investigation to determine exactly what damaged the nose landing gear. According to data logged by the Aviation Safety Network, the aircraft involved was an Airbus A320-200 registered EC-IZH.
Nose-gear problems on roll-out, while rare, are among the events airports plan for precisely because of the disruption they cause: the aircraft typically comes to rest on the runway itself, and until it can be safely moved the airfield is effectively shut. In this case the crew's handling and the subsequent evacuation ensured that a mechanical failure did not turn into an injury event.
For Iberia, the immediate priority was the safe recovery of passengers and the removal of the aircraft for inspection. For Split, the closure underlined the vulnerability of high-demand seasonal airports with limited runway capacity, where a single stranded jet can disrupt an entire afternoon of arrivals and departures at the height of summer.
The investigation now under way should establish whether the failure originated with the tyres, the gear assembly or another factor, and whether any wider fleet or maintenance action is warranted.
Sources: AVHerald, Aviation Safety Network. Featured image: AI-generated by AviationShop. By Elena Vargas.
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