A Northern Territory pilot has told how he landed a light aircraft on a remote airstrip without the use of the front landing gear.

Pilot Jason Botten had almost completed his trip from Tindal to Maningrida yesterday evening when the trouble arose.

He noticed the front landing gear of the Gunbalanya Air Cessna 310 plane was faulty.

With two others on board, the 31-year-old pilot, who has 12 years of flying experience, diverted to Jabiru.

"I just tried to stay as calm as I could," he said.

He did a low-fly pass of the runway at Jabiru to confirm the nose wheel could not be retracted or extended.

Then, with emergency crews watching on, he carefully touched down.

No one was injured but the plane wasn't so fortunate.

"(There was) some damage to the nose, also the propellers," Mr Botten said.

An Emergency Services spokesman says the pilot did extremely well to pull of a successful landing in difficult conditions.

Tex Tourell says the landing was made in near darkness.

"The sun was just going down, so it was very dark," he said.

"He could not use lighting because of the issues with fire after he had landed, so he was basically coming in quite blind."

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) and CASA have been notified of the incident and will investigate.

The airstrip has since been cleared.

Mr Botten says he has no fear of getting back into the air.