ANA Dash 8 emergency gear up landing

[the dean]

something of an emergency gear or nosewheel up landing in japan...??

no details or airline..( which i assume is a local carrier..)

anyone with details..??

the dean.

[fly bhoy]

Been on the BBC all morning. Looked like ANA Dash 8. All pax safe and a good job by the crew from the looks of it.

FB:ok:

[Gazeem]

They've got the video on the bbc website,

apparently it was shown live on TV in Japan as it happened. Good Job crew.

[F_Hercules]

It was a DHC8-Q400 from ANA, holded over airport for more than 1 hour to minimize fuel onboard.

According to newspapers ANA now grounded the fleet due to earlier problems with the DHC8-Q400.

[clearfinalsno1]

Video: Landing without nose gear (http://news.bbc.co.uk/player/nol/newsid_6440000/newsid_6444500/6444575.stm?bw=bb&mp=wm)
Very nicely done.

[Profit Max]

Nice how the pilot kept the nose up as long as he could, and until the plane had slowed down.

Profit Max

[stickyb]

Knowing how everyone loves the stories the journalists make up, I just want to share with you the headline from the BBC web site:
Japanese plane makes textbook emergency landing - on its nose
The rest of the story seems similarly low key, for instance:
Aviation expert Soichi Kaji told Japanese media: "It was almost a perfect emergency landing."
"Apparently the pilot was very calm and did just as he was trained," Mr Kaji said.

[srs what?]

I have to admit I was amazed at the reporting on BBC News. Very calm, no sensationalism - almost like it wasn't even worth reporting.

[Agaricus bisporus]

Well, that's probably because it is scarcely worth reporting.

[Rainboe]

Nice how the pilot kept the nose up as long as he could, and until the plane had slowed down.
An encouragement to do so is that the runway is approximately 2 feet under one's backside!
Really a very untraumatic event for an aeroplane. Damage will be minimal- just repair a few panels and stringers and bang the thing back out on service (might be an idea to remember to repair the original undercarriage fault though).

[Few Cloudy]

You'd better believe that a lot of thought and skill went into that landing. Once again - if it is a non event, you did it well.

[Huck]

I was working at Edwards AFB about 1990 when a B-1B came in - it had been doing tough & goes in DALLAS and the nosegear hung up. They air refuelled and went 1500 nm to Edwards to land on the lakebed.

Had test pilots from the manufacturer and the USAF flying chase on each wing, and they tried everything in or out of the book to get the gear down. Finally the sun was setting so they brought it in for a picture-perfect landing. $20,000 of sheet metal damage. Our airshow was that weekend so they put it on display for the public to see.

I saw the crew in the O club that night - they had left home in the morning for a 2 hour local and were in California by nightfall - they partied hard that night....

[Tordan]

Out of curiosity from a GA pilot, why isn´t the runway "foamed"? I can imagine a few reasons myself, such as low risk of tank rupture and resulting risk of fire when doing such a "low impact" landing, but I´m sure there are better reasons.
Would foaming increase the chance of the plane starting to slip and skid?

[Caudillo]

Wow, superb job. Couldn't even pull that off with all the wheels myself! :}

[Maude Charlee]

They could have landed with all the gear up and no-one would have noticed any difference from a standard Dash 8 Q400 landing (except the ground was a bit closer)!!! :}

Nice job.

[HowlingWind]

Out of curiosity from a GA pilot, why isn´t the runway "foamed"? Laying down a foam path is no longer recommended in most cases. Part of the rationale is to avoid braking loss, but also to maintain foam reserves if needed for fire-fighting.

Link to Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foam_path)

[Agaricus bisporus]

Also, as seen, foaming just isn't necessary. There are few sparks and unless your airframe is shot full of holes and leaking Avgas (as in WWII where this procedure originated) there is very little risk indeed. Just land off the centreline where the protruding light-housings will rip the structure cruelly and try to ignore the horrible grinding noises. Holding the nose up is so common sense it scarcely merits mentioning, surely?

It also involves very little more thought and skill than any other landing, despite what the experts above may avow, although it certainly concentrates the attention a little. And, as shown above, often (usually?) results in little more than superficial sheet metal damage in smaller types such as the one involved. Coping with little nuisances like this are what pilots are paid for...N'est ce pas?

Even so, nice job fellas!

[simonp]

This is an abbreviated clip. The pilot tried a bounce on the main gear in an attempt to dislodge the nose gear first. The commentary on Japanese TV explained that he kept the nose gear high till the plane had slowed to a recommended speed which is considered to create less friction and sparking. Japanese TV made a lot more fuss than the local news. Passenger interviews indicated that the pilot kept the pax informed the whole time and came across as if it was just another day in the office.

[lowlypax]

From Mainichi News (Japanese newspaper) web site today:

Dislodged bolt behind ANA plane's belly-landing


A dislodged bolt was behind Tuesday's belly-landing of an All Nippon Airways plane at Kochi Airport, government inspectors advised.
Inspectors from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport's Aircraft and Railway Accident Investigation Committee visited Kochi Airport to inspect the ANA Bombardier DHC8-Q400 that was involved in Tuesday's accident.
A bolt locking the arm that operates the front-landing gear door had fallen off, causing the door to malfunction.
The inspectors will reportedly continue investigating the plane.
Investigations said that because the bolt had been dislodged, a steel ring that covers it was moved and blocked the front-landing gear's door from opening.

A report in the same paper described how a passenger on one of the platforms at Tokyo station was hit on the head by a bolt falling off the roof yesterday. Does something happen to bolts in Japan in Spring?

[F_Hercules]

Looks like the Q400 was delivered without the bolt from factory according to The Aircraft and Railway Accidents Investigation Commission of the Land, Infrastructure and Transport Ministry......

Interesting to see Bombardiers respons to this information.

http://www.japantoday.com/jp/news/422578

[cwatters]

> report in the same paper described how a passenger on one of the
> platforms at Tokyo station was hit on the head by a bolt falling off
> the roof yesterday. Does something happen to bolts in Japan in Spring?

Thats what you get when a journalist googles for "bolt+fell+off+japan". I'm surprised they didn't mention it was a bolt caused this incident...

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2007/08/29/2003376292

[Mad (Flt) Scientist]

I'd be curious to see the logic behind the conclusion that the bolt was omitted in production; I don't know how you could conclude that a part was omitted at some specific time in history from the fact that it's missing now. All you can conclude is that it was omitted at some previous time.

[lomapaseo]

I'd be curious to see the logic behind the conclusion that the bolt was omitted in production; I don't know how you could conclude that a part was omitted at some specific time in history from the fact that it's missing now. All you can conclude is that it was omitted at some previous time.

Well if the bolt hole and faces had no fretting similar to other similar installations then one might conclude that it/she was still a virgin since birth.

[Mad (Flt) Scientist]

I suppose so.

And I guess also if you could prove there'd been no access to the area since delivery, you could conclude the area was as-delivered.

[Mad (Flt) Scientist]

Found a slightly more detailed news reports. Hats off to lomapaseo's predictive skills :)

The bolt that should have been there has not been found, while there was no trace that the bolt had scraped the cylindrical support part called bushing, they said.

[pigboat]

An encouragement to do so is that the runway is approximately 2 feet under one's backside!


Great line Rainboe! :ok:

Does anyone remember a DC-4 many years ago, landing with a hung nose wheel? Apparently the cockpit floor wore down to the rudder pedals in the subsequent journey along the runway.

Huck, I had an unsafe nosewheel indication on the G1 once. We could see the gear was extended by the reflection in the spinners, but it wasn't locked. Did everything according to the book, and it still wouldn't lock into pace. By this time dispatch was in contact with Gulfstream in SAV, so I suggested we do a touch and go and bang the nosewheel on the runway to lock it into place. They said go ahead it's your airplane. Result, FSI incorporated the pigboat 'bang the nosewheel on the runway if all else fails" procedure in the training syllabus. :p

[herkman]

I was on crash crew duty at RAAF Richmond in 1961, when a Canberra could not get his nose gear down.

Wind straight along runway was 35 knots, a bit unusual for those who know the place.

Canberra flew over fairly low and blew of the navigators hatch, but then he decided to stay.

Crash crew chief briefed us, that he was of the apinion that we could save the situation. Every bod was grabbed as was an air bag which was partly inflated. It was not needed because the wind increased a little more.

As the aircraft landed the pilot was instructed to keep the nose up for as long as he could. The nose was still up when she had slowed to walking pace and about 25 of us scrabled up on the tailplane.

Engines shut down and crew got out and the nose was still up. The nose gear was manually extended, and then one at a time we got off the tailplane and when the nose started to fall back we stayed on until it touched the ground so gently.

Thank goodness for the wind.

Aircraft was delayed whilst a new hatch was flown down from its base.

Cause turned out to be a locking pin that fell out for reasons that could be established.

Nice to see good airmanship incidents all the time.

Always too easy to blame the pilot, which in my opinion is all too easy, and the cowards way out.

Regards

Col

[ManaAdaSystem]

Fantastic!

[BuDy]

amazing captain landing,

that will show how a plane is landed without front gear,

10 out of 10 , fantastic, no words, just perfect, well done

[yetanotherdawn]

I'll just stick in my twopenny worth to the well-deserved torrent of praise. Lovely job.