The incident is the fourth recent landing alert at Rome’s airport

Italy's air navigation safety agency has ordered an investigation after an Alitalia airplane flying from Madrid made an emergency landing at Rome's Fiumicino airport on the night of Saturday 28 September. All 151 passengers were evacuated without injuries.

The landing gear on the right-hand side of the aeroplane failed to open, causing the aircraft to land leaning on its nose and left wing.The plane, an Airbus A320, was built in 2010.

The following afternoon a Lufthansa flight to Frankfurt was forced to return to Fiumicino due to a suspected problem with its landing gear. It subsequently landed safely.

In June a flight operated by the Hungarian low-cost carrier Wizz Air crash-landed at Fiumicino due to malfunctioning landing gear. The aircraft had been scheduled to land at Ciampino, Rome's second airport, but switched to the better-equipped Fiumicino once the problem was discovered. There were no serious injuries.

In February this year an Alitalia aircraft, contracted to the Romanian airline Carpatair, landed off the runway injuring 16 people.