'He kept his cool': Pilot praised for emergency landing

A NSW pilot who made an emergency landing at Sydney's Bankstown Airport has been praised for keeping his cool after his plane's landing gear failed to deploy.

The Piper PA-31 Navajo light plane, owned by the Wagga Air Centre, was carrying only the pilot and mixed freight when it made the emergency belly landing last night.

The plane took off from Young in the state's South West Slopes just after 6pm on its regular freight run until it ran into trouble over western Sydney.

The flight path of the light aircraft shows the plane circling the airport several times, with one source telling 9NEWS the pilot may have been trying to dislodge the landing gear.

The pilot spent nearly an hour circling the city until he eventually landed at 7.38pm.

He handled the situation very well, according to Wagga Air Centre managing director Chris Cabot.

"He is a young guy in the early stages of his career and he handled himself very professionally," Mr Cabot told AAP on Thursday.

"I spoke to him on the phone and we went over the procedures a few times and he kept his cool."

In audio obtained by 9NEWS, the pilot can be heard telling air traffic control he had done "everything he can" to try and initiate his landing gear, but was unsuccessful.

With the assistance of the flight control centre, the pilot was eventually able to land the plane on its belly, and the pilot self evacuated.

He was assessed by paramedics at the scene, and was uninjured.

It's believed the same aircraft was involved in another incident with the same landing gear issue, according to the Air Transport Safety Bureau. 

Officials will investigate the incident, a spokesman for Civil Aviation Safety Authority said on Thursday.