We were returning to our base at NAS Corpus Christi after a short training hop. One of the duties of the flight engineer was to verify that the main and nose landing gear were down and locked. The main gear down lock was viewed through a small window in the side of the wheel wells. If the gear was not locked the flight engineer would use a special tool that was about 2 ½ feet long and this tool would be placed in a pivot pin and the tool was forced against the landing gear forcing the knuckle joint over center, causing the gear to lock. There was a similar tool used for verification of the nose gear being locked. This tool consisted of a pointed rod about 1” in diameter and about 2 ½ feet long. On the opposite end from the point was a ratchet. To verify the gear was down and locked, the rod was inserted in a hole at the top of the nose wheel well and it had to pass through three lugs. Two of the lugs were on the front bulkhead of the wheel well and the third was on the nose gear. If the rod passed through all three lugs then the gear was down and locked. If the lugs did not line up then the ratchet was used to jack the gear into the locked position and the rod check was made again to verify the correct position.
I made the check and when I pulled the rod back all I had was the ratchet end and the rod was gone. After landing I checked to see if the rod was still in place in the three lugs but it was nowhere to be found. In making our final approach we passed over several housing developments and our first concern was that the rod hit a house or worse a person. We reported the incident to the Navy (our host) and waited several days for someone to report damage to a structure or that the rod was found imbedded in the ground. No report came through so we breathed a sigh of collective relief. We also replaced the aluminum rivets on the tool with stainless steel rivets.
