Smartlynx Airlines reported on Wednesday evening that its MYX9001 training flight ran into technical difficulties when it approached Tallinn Airport. "There were no passengers on board as it was training flight. Seven crew members, two pilots, four trainees and one instructor, were safely evacuated from the aircraft," the company said in a press release.

After the plane landed the airport remained closed for landings until 9:30 p.m. on Wednesday evening, causing delays. Flights were redirected to Helsinki and Riga, the airport's communications officer, Priit Koff, told journalists. How exactly airlines would handle the situation depends on their own policies for such cases, Koff added.

Planes at the airport were allowed to take off again starting shortly before 8 p.m. using the shortened main runway.

Experts of the Safety Investigation Bureau later made it to the airport to look into the incident. The plane remained at the east end of the airport's runway.

Landing gear damaged during earlier training approach

The training crew of seven had been practising approaches and landings since about 12 p.m. When the plane approached the runway for such a training run at 5:04 p.m., it failed to gain altitude in time, and its landing gear touched down on the runway hard enough to damage the plane's undercarriage, including the landing gear doors.

Following the impact, the pilots pulled up and brought the plane around for an emergency landing, coming in from the east. Over Tuulevälja some 6 kilometers (roughly 3.6 miles) southeast of the airport, the aircraft lost one of the damaged landing gear doors.

"The aircraft is next to the runway, in one piece, nothing catastrophic happened. I wouldn't want to say that it overshot the runway, but it is next to the runway," Koff said on Wednesday evening. ERR's "Aktuaalne kaamera" newscast reported that the plane's landing gear was damaged.

The landing gear was fixed and the plane towed back to the airport's flightline early on Thursday morning.

Five departing and six arriving flights were cancelled. The remainder of the flights scheduled for Wednesday evening was delayed, and several flights into Tallinn were redirected to other airports. The incident affected some 30 flights.

Smartlynx Airlines was founded in Latvia in 1992. It specializes in aircraft leasing services as well as charter flights and crew training.