German investigators are to examine an Augsburg Airways Bombardier Q400 which landed at Munich today with its nose-gear retracted, after turning back from a service to Florence.

The aircraft was operating a Lufthansa Regional connection on the Munich-Florence route on behalf of the German Star Alliance carrier.

Local reports state that the crew discovered that the nose-wheel could not be deployed as the turboprop started its approach to the Italian city.

It returned to Munich in order to make use of the longer runway. Munich's parallel runways are 4,000m compared with the relatively short 1,688m strip at Florence.

None of the 64 passengers and four crew members said to have been on board was injured.

Last week 60 Q400 aircraft were given checks, including 6 operated by Flybe. That caused delays to the airlines schedules.