SunExpress Boeing 737-800 Suffers Main Landing Gear Collapse During Taxi at Antalya
Antalya, Türkiye — A SunExpress Boeing 737-800 came to a jarring halt on a taxiway at Antalya Airport on Feb. 13 after its left main landing gear collapsed without warning, leaving the aircraft resting on its own engine nacelle. All 175 passengers and six crew members were safely evacuated via stairs, and no injuries were reported.
The aircraft, registered TC-SOB and roughly ten years old, was operating as flight XQ7646 bound for Gaziantep when the failure occurred on taxiway J as the jet headed toward runway 18L for departure. Photos circulating on social media showed the 737 sitting at a pronounced angle, the left CFM56-7B engine pod pressed flat against the pavement and the gear strut visibly buckled beneath the wing. SunExpress described the event as “a technical issue involving the landing-gear strut” and said the aircraft was immediately pulled from service for inspection. The airline arranged a replacement 737-800, registration TC-SOP, which departed Antalya roughly four and a half hours later to complete the domestic route.
A Pattern Worth Watching
What makes this incident particularly unsettling is timing. The collapse happened during low-speed taxi — not under the high-energy stresses of touchdown or rejected takeoff. That’s uncommon. Landing gear assemblies are engineered to absorb enormous vertical loads on arrival, yet this one gave way while the aircraft was barely rolling.
And it’s not an isolated case. Forum threads on PPRuNe, the professional pilots’ network, quickly noted that similar main-gear failures on 737 NG-series aircraft have cropped up multiple times in recent years. Possible culprits cited by maintenance professionals include shimmy damper failure, trunnion pin fractures, and aft trunnion bearing issues — all components deep within the gear assembly that are subject to fatigue over thousands of cycles. One PPRuNe contributor questioned whether the problem might trace back to overhaul procedures rather than original manufacturing. Landing gear on high-cycle narrowbodies like the 737 gets overhauled at regular intervals, and the quality of that work can vary across the global network of MRO providers. Whether the gear on TC-SOB had recently come out of overhaul isn’t publicly known.
SunExpress at a Crossroads
The incident arrives at an awkward moment for SunExpress, which has been in the middle of an aggressive fleet expansion. The Turkish-German leisure carrier — a joint venture between Turkish Airlines and Lufthansa — took delivery of four brand-new Boeing 737-8 aircraft in January alone, part of a broader campaign to modernize its all-Boeing fleet. The airline holds orders for up to 90 737 MAX jets and aims to more than double its fleet to 150 aircraft by the end of the decade. The 737-800, the workhorse of SunExpress’s current fleet, remains one of the most prolific commercial aircraft types ever produced. More than 4,500 are in service worldwide. Its safety record is broadly strong, but the sheer volume of aircraft in operation means that structural fatigue patterns — especially in high-cycle, short-haul operations like those SunExpress runs across Türkiye and Europe — deserve close monitoring.
Wider Scrutiny on 737 Landing Gear
Boeing’s narrowbody family has weathered intense scrutiny over the past two years, though primarily focused on the 737 MAX and its quality-control challenges. The 737-800, a predecessor to the MAX, has generally stayed above the fray. But gear-related incidents do draw attention. In March 2024, a 737 MAX suffered a gear collapse at Houston. In January 2025, a TUI 737-700 had its nose gear collapse at Brussels while parked. And the December 2024 Jeju Air disaster in South Korea — the deadliest 737 accident in years — raised broader questions about gear deployment and overall structural reliability across the 737 family.
Turkish aviation authorities are expected to lead the investigation into the SunExpress event, likely in coordination with Boeing and the landing gear’s component manufacturers. Investigators will examine the failed strut and bearing assemblies, review TC-SOB’s maintenance logs and overhaul history, and look for any signs of fatigue cracking or corrosion. For now, SunExpress says its priority remains passenger safety. The airline hasn’t disclosed whether other aircraft in its fleet will undergo precautionary gear inspections. But in the professional aviation community, the question is already circling: is there a systemic fatigue issue lurking in 737 NG landing gear assemblies — or was this simply an unlucky one-off? The answer matters for every carrier operating the type.
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