Originally Posted by
Fly3
I agree having flown the B757 into Funchal back in the 1980's.. Air Europe managed to smack one on so hard that it punched the nose gear up into the E&E bay. IIRC Boeing came over and carried out a major repair.
It was certainly a captains’ only sector ( not that we necessarily did a better job of it ) and required line check and sim check prior to operating there.
Even TAP ( the apparent experts ) have written off a few airframes in there over the years.
I wandered over to chat to the Boeing field repair guys ( all vets/ crew cuts/ lots of pens with those interesting cardboard pocket protectors) not long after the event. They opened the DV widows, jacked up the aircraft with a wooden beam on pit props through the window surround, drifted down the nose gear with mahoosive hammers and welded the gear down and the now distorted DV windows shut.
Not long after my operator banned the 757 from Funchal. Can’t say any of us were less than over joyed.