--- title: "Watch a C-17 pull off a gnarly gear-up landing at Kandahar Air Field" description: "U.S. Forces - Afghanistan spokesman Col. Sonny Leggett confirmed that a C-17 Globemaster made an emergency landing at Kandahar Air Field on Sunday morning" date: "2020-10-23" modified: "2020-10-23" authors: - name: "David Roza" job_title: "YouTube Writer/Editor" link: "https://taskandpurpose.com/authors/david-roza/" url: "https://taskandpurpose.com/tech-tactics/air-force-c-17-belly-landing/" categories: - "Afghanistan" - "Air Force" - "Aircraft" - "Around the World" - "Military Branches" - "News" - "Tech & Tactics" tags: - "central command" - "Crash" --- # Watch a C-17 pull off a gnarly gear-up landing at Kandahar Air Field ![]() There are belly rubs, and then there are *belly rubs,* and a [C-17]() got one hell of the latter when it landed with its nose wheel up at Kandahar Air Field in Afghanistan earlier this month. A video posted on YouTube shows the incident in living color, and boy is it worth a gander: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YuTbZyBe3CM Though the Air Force has yet to release many details about the incident, U.S. Forces - Afghanistan spokesman Col. Sonny Leggett confirmed on Twitter on Sunday that a C-17 Globemaster made an emergency landing at Kandahar that morning. No injuries were reported and no enemy activity was involved, Leggett said, and the incident is under investigation. https://twitter.com/USFOR_A/status/1317740578386415617 What requires no investigation, however, is the fact that the C-17 pilot in the video can really perform under pressure, bringing the 141-ton aircraft down smoothly despite the lack of nose-mounted landing gear. And those 141 tons are just if the C-17 was unloaded: since it *is* a cargo aircraft, there is a good chance it was even heavier on this landing. The maximum payload of a C-17 is about [82.5 tons](), according to manufacturer Boeing. From photos of the C-17 that appear at the end of the YouTube video, the aircraft appears to be assigned to the 62nd Airlift Wing and its reserve associate unit, the 446th Airlift Wing, both of which are stationed at Joint Base Lewis-McChord Washington. Whoever the pilot is, somebody please buy that guy or gal a refreshing beverage. They’ve earned it. ***Related: [4 US service members injured in C-130 mishap at Camp Taji in Iraq]()*** ## Author David Roza writes scripts about military news for the Task & Purpose YouTube channel, and he also writes articles about military pay, benefits, health care, child care, culture, and other personnel topics on a freelance basis. Roza previously covered the Air Force and Space Force for Task & Purpose from 2019 to 2023 and for Air & Space Forces Magazine from 2023 to 2025. In the course of that reporting, he has set off a ‘Hollywood explosion’ with Air Force bomb techs, turned the (unarmed) keys of a nuclear missile bunker, hovered over the Nevada desert on an Air Force rescue helicopter, and got the best sleep of his life on the floor of a C-17 over the central Pacific. Share tips and story ideas with David at [david.roza@teamrecurrent.io]()