History: Belly landing

A belly landing or gear-up landing can occur when an aircraft attempts to land without its landing gear fully extended. In this case the aircraft's belly or underside is used as a landing device.

There are two cases: when the pilot forgets to extend the landing gear (this is called gear-up landing) and the second case is when a mechanical failure or damage to the landing gear prevents it to be fully extended. This is called a belly landing.