Pretty sure this has happened a few times before - even an old Pprune thread
http://www.pprune.org/tech-log/48792...-17-times.html
and Wikipedia in 2005 after A Jet Blue incident:-
Expert opinion expressed was that, despite the drama and live worldwide coverage, there was little real danger to the passengers or crew of Flight 292. The A320, like all modern airliners, is engineered to tolerate certain failures, and, if necessary, can be landed without the nose gear at all.
A similar incident with an A320 occurred on an
America West Airlines flight in February 1999 in
Columbus, Ohio (Flight 2811).The
National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) found the cause was a failure of the external o-rings in the nose landing gear steering module.
[5] That plane also landed safely.
The media reported that this was at least the seventh occurrence of an Airbus A320 series aircraft touching down with the landing gear locked ninety degrees out of position, and one of at least sixty-seven "nose wheel failures" on A319, A320 and A321 aircraft worldwide since 1989. Earlier incidents included another JetBlue flight bound for
New York City, a
United Airlines flight into
Chicago, and an
America West flight into
Columbus, Ohio. While some incidents were traced to faulty maintenance and denied as a design flaw by Airbus Industries, the manufacturer had issued maintenance advisories to A320 owners which were later mandated as
Airworthiness Directives by American and French aviation authorities.
[14] Messier-Dowty, which manufactures nose gear assemblies for the A320, stated in an NTSB report in 2004 that part of the gear had been redesigned to prevent future problems, but at the time the redesign was awaiting approval.
[15] Mechanics familiar with this common fault usually replace or re-program the Brake Steering Control Unit (BSCU) computer.
The NTSB report says that worn-out seals were to blame for the malfunction, and that the BSCU system contributed to the problem. The NTSB reported that Airbus had since upgraded the system to take care of the problem.
Following the incident, the aircraft was repaired and returned to service still bearing the name "Canyon Blue." The flight route designation for JetBlue's flights from Burbank to New York was changed from 292 to 358 (the other direction became 350).