It’s weird how reading a particular bit of news can trigger a chain of thought and recollections about similar incidents and news in the past. I can say this with a certain degree of conviction, as a small story of an airplane nose landing gear malfunction reminded me of several similar stories — all of which happened just THIS MONTH.
March 30, 2007 Sanford, Florida. A plane with malfunctioning nose landing gear touched down safely in a cloud of sparks and smoke at Orlando Sanford International Airport on Thursday, officials said. There were 157 passengers on board.
March 30, 2007 Ravenna, Ohio. The Hickory Regional Airport closed one of two runways Monday morning after a twin-engine Cessna skidded across the airstrip when the landing gear failed, causing the nose to dive into the runway.
March 29, 2007 Akron, Ohio. The two men were flying a 1996 Alon Aircoupe from a Youngstown airport to Akron-Fulton International Airport when the plane’s engine stopped. The plane’s landing gear struck a ditch, causing the plane to spin and damaging the nose, both wings, fuselage and landing gear.
March 27, 2007 Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, Russia. An An-12 plane from Seoul has made an emergency landing on Sakhalin Island. During the flight the plane reported failure to lower nose landing-gear leg. The plane circled overhead above the destination airport of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, where rescuers were summoned, until full fuel runout.
March 25, 2007 Essesx, UK. The front landing gear of a Beech 200 collapsed and the plane skidded down the runway on its nose The pilot has been praised by fire crews after ’safely’ landing his aircraft after its landing gear collapsed with seven people on board.
March 21, 2007
Kumamoto, Japan. Pilots flying a Bombardier-built DHC-8-103 turboprop, or Dash-8, operated by Japan’s Amakusa Airlines Co., were forced to drop the plane’s landing gear manually yesterday after the aircraft’s automatic system malfunctioned.
March 13, 2007 Las Vegas. An Air Canada jet with 146 people aboard was barreling down a runway at 126 mph when it blew landing gear tires and aborted its takeoff from Las Vegas, a Federal Aviation Administration official said.
March 8, 2007 Los Angeles. A Southwest Airlines jet was diverted to Los Angeles International Airport today, where it landed safely after the pilot reported seeing a warning light involving the nose gear.
March 8, 2007 Indonesia. The deadly fireball that engulfed an Indonesian jet, killing Australian and other passengers, was likely sparked when the plane’s front wheels snapped off on landing, investigators say. At least 21 people, including four Australians, perished in the accident.
March 3, 2007 Kochi, India. An All Nippon Airways (ANA) Bombardier made a nose gear-up emergency landing at Kochi airport after the gear failed to deploy. It was forced to make an emergency landing with its nose gear up and live television pictures showed sparks from the nose as it made contact with the runway on the landing roll.
So what are reactions to these mishaps from the airlines, airplane manufacturers and maintenance authorities at airports? Not as full-steam as you’d expect. I’ve scoured through the news, trying to unearth if any any new measures are being taken, any new regulations introduced, any extra safety checks on the landing gear.
Unfortunately, the answers I find are way short of my expectations. Several airliners have resolved to “work fully and openly with civil aviation authorities” and “determine the root cause and to implement any corrective actions required.”
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It is a very interesting story. Thanks!
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Thanks guys for the encouragement!
And really sorry for acknowledging your comments — having a hard time dealing with thousands of spam, and even some genuine comments even deleted
Installed Akismet now, so sure hope it won’t happen again