SA Airlink Crash Landing(!) in DUR

[BAKELA]

Heard on 702 just now (like in 10 minutes ago) that "A SA Airlink aircraft made a crash landing at Durban International Airport...". In the same report, the local Durban 702 reporter said "...the aircraft landed safely but...2 crew and 13 passengers are receiving counciling...". According to 702 "The aircraft left from Johannesburg yesterday...". (Not to distract from the seriousness of this, but does 702 believe SA Airlink had a fleet upgrade to the Wright Flyer?). :mad:

A question though; except the fact that we all know the press sucks (remember the Harvard with an ejaculation seat on 702 nogal?) - never mind the big deal they made out of body parts falling from SAA's aircraft - their lack of knowledge and insight into matters aviation is acknowledged (with loathing I must say). Back to the question - who tipped them off about the SA Airlink emergency (that will allow them to report on it 10 minutes after it happened?).

New info - Apparently they circled Durban for just over two hours to burn off fuel as they had a gear unsafe indication. Seems they could not get a green on the nosewheel.

[Gunship]

This is what I got from a SAA guy :

A SA Airlink JS41 ZS-NRI has just mad a emergency landing
at Durgan Intl. Do not know at this stage if the JS41 could
not retract the gear correctly after take-off or before landing.
The nose wheel did colapse on tuchdown. Durabn Intl is now closed
for the hour or so until they can recover the plane off the runway.

[BAKELA]

Dumela Gunns,

Thanks for the input. No more news now but your first sentence ties in with my last, does it not?

[flyitlikeyoustoleit]

:ok:
Thumbs up to a very good job by Capt Gunnrunner.

[Rhodie]

Sunday Tribune wrote:
Pilot saves 16 in crash landing
June 12, 2005

By Fred Kockott

Expert flying saved the lives of 16 passengers and crew on an SA Airlink flight which made an emergency landing - with no nose wheel - at Durban International Airport yesterday as firefighters and rescue personnel sped along the runway.

"It was awesome flying. The pilot only dropped the nose of the plane on to the runway as it came to a stop," said advanced life support medic Suren Deonarain.

"Extra fuel had to be dumped over the sea, and passengers all had to move to the rear seats before he could attempt the landing," added Netcare's South Coast operations manager Chris Botha.

Botha said when the SA Airlink plane had come in to land, fire tenders, accompanied by a paramedic unit and a doctor, had sped along the runway parallel to the craft, in case it burst into flames from sparks caused by the plane's nose hitting the runway.

"The whole airport disaster plan had kicked in," said Botha. "It ran like clockwork, even better than the drills we often do."
As firefighters hosed down the 18-seater Jetstream, severely shocked passengers disembarked, hugging each other - one of them even kissing the ground in gratitude.

"I'm not deeply religious," advocate Conrad Rheeder later said at Kingsway Hospital, after an hour's trauma debriefing. "But up there during the flight, one became rather spiritual. Below us was this beautiful view of the sea. You kept wondering whether this was the last time you were going to see it."

Rheeder and 12 other passengers had embarked on the flight in Johannesburg at 11.30am and were expected to touch down in Margate at 12.30pm.

But on attempting to land in Margate, pilot Capt Trevor Quantrill discovered that the plane's nose wheel undercarriage had failed to deploy.

Margate's runway was too short to attempt an emergency landing, and as the plane was still loaded with fuel, Quantrill diverted to Durban where the Airports Company of South Africa (Acsa) activated a disaster plan. Within an hour, dozens of emergency vehicles lined the runway. Inside the airport all staff assisted in dealing with the operational shutdown.


The viewing deck was cleared of people, except for Mike Wilkinson, whose wife Jenny was on board. Wilkinson and his 4-year-old son, Thomas, had earlier watched the plane abort its attempted landing in Margate, then circle around a few times, before flying to Durban.

While passengers on the plane braced themselves in the plane's rear seats for the emergency landing, Wilkinson, standing by his son, uttered silent prayers.

On board the plane, Quantrill, assisted by two crew members, had already talked through the procedure.

Prayers
"The air hostess was really wonderful. You could see she was deeply affected, but she retained her composure," said Rheeder.

"The pilot said that the landing would feel normal, but that the engines would be cut to reduce the risk of fire. He said the nose would be kept up for as long as possible, but that when it did hit the ground, we must expect a huge jolt and awful lot of noise," added Rheeder.

"But the noise never came. As the plane stopped, we all started clapping, then hugging each other."

Crew and passengers were assessed for shock and taken to Kingsway Hospital for trauma counselling. "They were all really badly, badly, shaken, especially the 4 or 5-year-old boy," said Deonarain.

"The pilot too. He had held so many people's lives in his hands. After he touched down, I think the pressure and shock of it all hit him hard . . . But this one lady, as she got off, she said, 'That was a really cool experience'," added Botha.


Bloody good job...!! :ok:

R

[Gunship]

Dumeala BAKELA .. damn good job whoever Capt Gunrunner is :E

Congrats mate :ok:

[Fluffy flyer]

Trevor Quantrill

Well done trevor............

I know that you were only doing what we all get trained to do, but it i nice to be appreciated for a good job well done.

So well done Mate, good job.

Regards Fluffy flyer.

[McGreaser]

E-e am l missing something here ? Whilst the conduct of the Air Link crew was extolled with all superlatives for their excellent handling of the situation which it was considering everybody was alive. UM made an emergency landing in Jo'burg and it was deemed an unnecessary evacuation by a one Globalwarning. My question is in what capacity do you Cde Globalwarning make such a conclusion and what qualifications enable you to fear UM might spear one in soon ? Where you a pax on the said flight or you where part of the smoke or where you cutting grass on the taxiway when it happened ? Am really curious, am sure a few of my Chibuku guzzling geezers would to. Or you are just joining in the fun of trashing UM on line at expense of bandwidth which could be used constructively :confused:

[Goldfish Jack]

Well done lads on a job well done....


Seems it was a text book landing and no serious damage to the aircraft.

Congrats!

ps Is this really a newsworth incident or another day at the office???

[I.R.PIRATE]

Of COURSE its newsworthy, an airline transport pilot landed an aircraft......without its nosewheel....how could that not be newsworthy....it could even have burst into flames!!

[Shrike200]

Looks like they nailed the centreline...with no nosewheel steering etc. Kudo's, they did a job we all train to do, but it looks like they did it well. And nobody got hurt...good job!

[unablereqnavperf]

Sorry guys have to disagree we never train for a nose wheel collapse these days.

These guys had to sort this one out for themselves which deserves much praise indeed. I don't know any QRH which gives you a check list procedure for landing with the nose wheel stuck in the up position.

This Captain used all of his knollwege and combined it with a huge serving of common sence and therefore got a succesful outcome.

By what I'm reading here he also briefed his pax and crew very well, which given the nature of his situation he again preformed admirably.

When Mr Murphy decides to through a lump of brown stuff into the fan he rarely uses a text book procedure and crews have to use all their combined brain power to solve the situation which these guys did extremely well so please don't be little this by saying we train for this type of thing.

WELL DONE Captain QUANTRILL AND CREW!! :ok:

[cavortingcheetah]

;) I try to read between the lines here.

This is what the Runes tell me, albeit a trifle mushed together as to fact and conjecture. Bear with me and separate accordingly please.

The aircraft was a BAES Jetstream 31/32 (18 spax seats). If it wasn't, disregard the rest.

It left JHB for Margate with 13 pax and round trip fuel.

(I imagine that this was done for fuel costing, Jet A1 availability @ Margate and fuelling time and motion problems at Margate.)

The aircraft made an approach at Margate. Went around and then diverted to Louis Botha. The crew dumped fuel before the diversion approach.

I am not aware of any civilian Bae J31/32 that has a fuel dump/jettison facility.
Anyone help me there please.

One might not find detailed undercarriage problems in a QRH. What about the expanded checklist, which, on the J 31/32-if I bother to dig mine out, was pretty good. Mostly common sense, of course. That's how the British built flying battleships.

Also I would like to know if SA Airlink do a power back at Johannesburg. Would that be FAJS or FALA?
If they do do a power back, what do the SOPs say about use of braking?:O

[nugpot]

A/c was J41 (28 seats)

Forward power out bays available in JNB and DUR.

As far as I know J41 has no dump capability.

[cavortingcheetah]

:) Thank you for that information nugpot.:D

[saywhat]

I would say that flying at a relatively low altitude over the sea for (2 hours?) would most certainly "dump" fuel through the burner cans. All in all a great job Trev!!!!!

[PAXboy]

Non pilot speaking. Link do use powerback in some places, in the words of an ex-41 Captain of theirs, "Don't touch the breaks until she has come to a stop!!!"

This does sound like a fine result, even though the jounos have milked it for all they could.

[boyracer]

Hey Trev my mate well done, will have to discuss it over a few beers sometime Ill do the buying:ok:

[sky waiter]

Love the head line in the sunday times, "pilot issues message of doom".

What sensationalism, although there must have been some worry on board, the press really blew this one out of proportion! nice pic though. Well done to the crew looked nicely on the centreline as previously stated. :ok:

[I.R.PIRATE]

Im really glad they hit the centerline, considering you have such a lovely view of it through your windshield and its new deck angle.

[makeapullup]

Is this what the LINK guys keep talking about when they mention R.I.F.T. ?