Canberra

A small plane made a wheels-up emergency landing after several hours of circling above Newcastle Airport in New South Wales. The Beechcraft Super King airplane, operated by Eastern Air Services, had three people onboard, including the pilot, found its landing gear failed when it was just 10 minutes into the flight during its 112-mile journey to Port Macquarie in the north. 

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A video that is now going viral on social media shows the plane approaching the runway without an activated landing gear. As it touches down the runway, it skids along the tarmac until finally coming to a stop. Emergency response vehicles on standby then raced to the aid of the plane. 

The authorities as well as the onlookers near the tarmac burst into applause as it safely landed.

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Neither the pilot nor the two passengers, a 60-year-old man and a 65-year-old woman, faced any injuries. Superintendent Wayne Humphrey of the New South Wales police praised the pilot for managing to successfully land the plane without any material or lively harm. 

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''After some hours in the air burning off some fuel, he [the pilot] made a textbook wheels-up landing, which I was very happy to see … It ended really well, thank goodness,'' he said.

"It was a great result, really well done by the pilot. I could hear him on the air, he sounded very calm to me," Humphrey added. 

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Newcastle Airport said in a statement posted on social media: ''We're incredibly relieved the aircraft landed safely this afternoon. We're investigating options to recover the aircraft and re-open the airfield as soon as possible.''

The transport safety bureau in Australia is now investigating the incident. Authorities closed the runway for 24 hours for a complete assessment post the emergency landing.

(With inputs from agencies)