Originally Posted by
ACMS
No actually only the small doors are open mate, which is normal.
The large nose gear doors are located forward, basically under and slightly forward of the 2 right side pitot tubes and Ice detector when they are open. These doors you see on the Air France 777 landing are the smaller doors only. The big doors are closed.
Look at the normal photo I've included of a EK 777 retraction in this reply, the main nose gear doors are under and slightly forward of the Pitot tubes, now look at the crash photo again.
On the EK 777 crash photo above the large doors are open........indicating the gear was most likely in transit.....
Ok
What makes me think the gear was RETRACTED at the moment of the impact.
On the contrary:
a.- if extended, could resist and do its job... or
b.- if extended and failed to cushion the impact, the belly would show a good quantity of damage once the gear broke and it doesn't to appear after the two pics posted by myself (sorry for the self-cites)
Since I leave this item for specialists, my question is: could the BIG GEAR DOORS be left opened by the impact? Is that a regular behavior considering the vital placement of that doors?
And the 777 seems to be a strong beast, at last...