THIS is the dramatic moment ground crew manually released the landing gear of an offshore helicopter as it came into land at Aberdeen International Airport.

The airport was placed on full emergency alert on Tuesday after the CHC-operated S92 helicopter – with 16 passengers and two crew – reported a problem with the landing gear.

The front wheel of the aircraft would not deploy so crew on the ground had to do it manually as it hovered around 5ft off the tarmac.

A CHC spokesman said: “An aircraft landed safely after an undercarriage indicator came on during the approach to Aberdeen Airport.

“The initial engineering inspection revealed that deployment of the landing gear was delayed. It was successfully lowered manually and the aircraft landed normally.”