Allegiant Air at KSFB
 

CNN is showing clips of Allegiant landing at Sanford, Florida with what appears to be a collapsed nose gear...

SPECI KSFB 292028Z 07016G21KT 10SM FEW045 27/13 A3014 RMK AO2 ACFT MSHP

Am at SFB at the moment, the Alegiant MD80 is still on the runway and clearly visible fro the terminal. Many delays for the UK transatlantic widebodies however the smaller domestic flights seem to be departing OK.

Allegiant @ SFB
 

Can't find it on CNN site, any ideas SVP

link
 

link to local news channel
http://www.wftv.com/news/11441343/detail.html

Video of landing
 

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=5e5_1175231514

It's on here.

Allegiant
 

Thanks right on the centre line, nice job by the sharp end crew

and an orderly, non-pannick riddened disembarkation by the looks of it.:D

Well done to the crew. With hindsight, from the comfort of my chair, it seems that the nose may have been held a bit too long as it seems that the nose came down at enough speed to 'bounce' after the first touchdown.

Could be an indication that the speed was allowed to decay beyond the point where elevator control was lost before the nose was allowed to settle down.

Good controlled landing, but why were Pax app only evacuated from overwing exits? Rear doors may have been too high for slides but they could have stepped out at the front. How long did the evac take?

Fortunately no fire.

Evacuation due the potential fire hazard was prompted by the nose scrape, so the hazard area would be around the front where the Emergency crews would want to monitor it, probably without disembarking pax tripping over all the gear or being near anything that might decide to burn...

I saw another angle and it showed the nose slides (main entry door and galley, fwd) deployed.

I watched the landing (tv) and the nose bounced off a couple of times. abrubtly...would not have been comfortable at all ...can you say whiplash?

the big question is why the failure in the first place...an american airlines super 80 (ha) had the same thing happen, I think in LA just a few months ago.

and to those who don't know, the airport is not the MAIN big Orlando airport (KMCO).

They were heard over the radio talking to Daytona App declaring an emergency due to hydraulics failure.

I think it must be more than a hydraulic failure...the DC9/MD80 emergency gear extension system is almost bullet proof if it is properly maintained and inspected prior to takeoff. I noticed that the flaps were extended for the landing ( hydraulic only)

a handle beneath the copilots left leg allows for a free fall of all gear ( slow down and do a checklist first of course).

this handle pulls a cable releasing uplocks on main gear doors and nose gear...there are two giant springs on the nose gear to help with extension...the md80/dc9 could lose every drop of hydraulic fluid and still land in very good order...full manual reversion on rudder, elevator, and aileron...

I have seen missing springs in the nose gear well but one must look closely during the walkaround...I've heard one break in flight...spoinggggggg.

I can only imagine that some other defect, perhaps like the american MD80 in which the up lock release was compromised (can't remember exactly what it was) may have happened again.