Ryanair B738 loses nosewheel
 

Media reporting that a RYR B738 shed a nosewheel on departure from Stansted enroute to Copenhagen this morning, landed safely at East Midlands.

AAIB have despatched an investigation team.

Ryanair plane makes emergency landing at East Midlands Airport after losing nose wheel - Nottingham Post

Seems strange diverting to EMA, unless that was the closest spare aircraft....

The crew seemed quite surprised when London told them that RYR ops had been on the phone and asked them to divert to Prestwick, or failing that East Midlands......

... or anywhere which isn't going to potentially close the only runway at your main base.

How does that kind of thing happen? Surely the maintenance guys check that all is as it should be?

Airliners rarely lose wheels, but when they do it's often a result of corrosion (sometimes the whole axle departs).

That's not really the kind of thing you can check for on every turnround.

The crew seemed quite surprised when London told them that RYR ops had been on the phone

Curious to know how they found out. Was there a problem on retraction: did ATC tell them as their Dunlop went AWOL across the carpark? (I once saw a video of a main wheel doing cartwheels down LGW's runway. It had a huge amount of distractive energy in it). Why were pax kept on board for 1.15mins? Surely lighten the plane ASAP to help move it PDQ. Must be a bus problem. Was the nose wheel damaged so that a tow bar could not be fitted, or does EMA have barless tugs? But even then damage could prevent it locking on. Closing EMA for 75mins would jot be popular, but as has been surmised spare a/c & perhaps crew might have been there not PIK. And how did they take the a/c of the runway, ands was it unable to taxi off, vacate & then stop?
Curious to learn as this is not very common. Braking technique and roll out distance would also be a learning process. I would assume as gentle as possible and full length. From memory EMA does not have HST's anyway.

Corrosion is one possible factor certainly. As is incorrect fitment by engineers.

B-Cal 1-11 ex MAN did the same, a/c headed to LGW, wheel headed to the River Bollin. Wheel changed on night stop.

I would have thought that axle tube corrosion on an a/c of that age was fairly unlikely.
But as an LAE myself , do rather feel for the maint. guys in a situation like this , as everyone and his mother in law is trying to second-guess their actions , and I don't think that I would like to do a nightshift on R/A's aeroplanes , either at STN or anywhere else. I have my theories on the matter which for the moment will remain theories.
As far as knowing about the wheels departure . A slight pull to the left probably , accompanied by a TPIS warning ?

Yes, wait for the AAIB investigation. Corrosion, material failure, maintenance error? All possibilities. Not hard on a dark rainy night to forget a step or miss something (I got absolutely soaked last night on my night stop) and the paper print out tends to turn into mash!

Indeed, and as a former engineer I am most certainly not pointing the proverbial finger at engineering as the cause. I only offered the B-Cal example by way of contrast to Dave Reids post. And I was only too familiar being a Line engineer, with the conditions you met last night.

A/c is 11 years old, I wouldn't be so quick to rule out corrosion, either on its own or in combination with a fatigue crack.

If you concentrate you should not get too distracted by it ;)

Dave , I haven't ruled out corrosion or a fatigue crack. You're right , both are totally plausible.
I'm just looking at it from a 'probability' point of view. I don't want to start speculating just yet , as a mark of respect for the maint. guys.
But I'm sure you probably know what I'm thinking.......and I really do hope that it isn't that .

Aircraft maybe 11 years old, doubt that the gear is that old. According to Boeing gear is swapped out approx every 10 years or 18000 cycles so would be a good bet that it's fairly new. Once had a main gear torque link shear off on a fairly new gear, turned out to be an error in the heat treatment process from manufacture.

Plane forced to make emergency landing at East Midlands Airport causes havoc for motorists on M1 - Burton Mail

Over reaction by Leicestershire police yet again in stopping traffic on the M1.

Unbelievable that they don't use ACARS in 2017 yet.

Having shed one wheel, it's not beyond the bounds of possibility that it could lose the other, maybe even on final approach.

Have you ever had a nosewheel land on your car? I'm told it can ruin your entire day.

Krystal n chips.

If the BCAL 1-11 event was about 1981 or 82 I was at there at Gatwick and saw it land.
It was a main wheel that came off on take off from MAN.
The other wheel on that leg had been changed the previous evening at Gatwick and the guy that changed it had already been Hung, Drawn and Quatered before the aircraft arrived at Gatwick. When it did a flypast he pointed out that the wheel he fitted was still there.
It turned out that the wheel that came off had an incorrect bearing fitted and had done 30 or 40 landings before departing the axle.

All for the want of a split pin?

Happened to me (as a young pax) on a British Airtours 707 at Dubrovnik in (I think) 1976. Detached nosewheel clearly visible to us at bounced off into the long grass!

Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than speak and remove all doubt...

What a ridiculous argument. You can't eliminate all the risk, so you don't bother mitigating any.

Let's hope that philosophy doesn't catch on ... :ugh:

From the article: "Leicestershire Police was called by East Midlands Airport to the M1 near to the airport at 9.56am in relation to an aircraft which needed to make an emergency landing."

So it's the airport overreacting rather than the police? Because realistically, what are the police going to say? "Our risk assessment is better than yours, despite not having any info on what's going on with the aircraft"?

So why don't they close the motorway for all aircraft movements just in case? What about the possibility of a single engine aircraft having an engine failure after take off or on the approach?

Absolutely - be careful when you "fix" one problem that you don't generate others!

http://avherald.com/img/orient_thai_...g_160411_3.jpg

Not the first time this has happened. This is a 737-300 which lost a nosewheel last year.

RYR don't have ACARS. Too cheap to pay for it!

Perhaps the Leicestershire Police have a long memory? January 1989 rings a bell.

Nope, different event to the one you saw. This was a nose wheel changed on a night stop and was done by Dan's who did the line maintenance for B-Cal at the time.

Bit of a sense of humour failure day?

As Exup pointed out, possible cause might be something else than clear traditional corrosion spot.

-maint error
-previously damaged threads on axle/nut
-bearing damage
-traditional corrosion on axle
-corrosion/heat damage possible previuous bearing failure
-with heat damage, there is possibility to have problems with axle plating cadmium. Turns problematic with axle steel.
-manufacturing error on overhaul
-hard landing earlier, undetected failure

Time will tell.

Was the a/c operating under a PAN? The use of 'emergency landing' is used for any event where it lands not at planned destination or alternate. Once 'emergency' is released on the airwaves all services sitting bored seem to want 'to be seen to be doing something'.
I remember an event many years ago where a UK a/c shutdown an engine, perhaps even a fire, and diverted to LPL under Mayday. That kicked into action all sorts of unknowns including alerting all hospitals within a radius and calling extra fire brigade from down town. In the subsequent haste to reach the airport the fire engine crashed into an innocent car and the driver as killed. The a/c landed safely and everyone else survived.
I've had various differing advices from airlines about when to use PAN or Mayday. Each seemed to have their own opinions. What we were not told is how ATC & Airfield procedures reacted to each. IMHO that is very relevant information for a captain. I know there were some old dogs who always wanted a Mayday to clear the skies for them. "Who's ever heard of a PAN outside of the classroom". Grump. Others were Mayday first then downgrade; others were wait and see what the condition is after you've actioned the QRH.
In all their advices there was nothing about what the rest of 'the team' were doing in the dark.

There's absolutely no doubt now.
......

RAT5

You raise what is a very topical issue amongst some of my colleagues as to the use of MAYDAY or PAN.
I think you will find that the diversion airfield would declare either FULL EMERGENCY, or possibly AIRCRAFT ACCIDENT IMMINENT. The actual decision would be detailed in their MATS PART TWO (local instructions).
Many moons ago I was an ACTO II with the CAA (now NATS) before leaving for BAeFC
I suspect that the external agencies were alerted and attended. Perhaps a current ATCO can update us as to the current practice.

As for the concept downgrading from MAYDAY to PAN ~ I have search for this in CAP413 and other documents without success.
Cancelling a MAYDAY ~ yes. Downgrade ~ ???

Cancelling a MAYDAY ~ yes. Downgrade ~ ???

Well, like I do with my hotel bookings sometime: book the expensive flexible until I know definitely, then cancel & rebook the cheaper no-refund rate. So if you cancel a Mayday you could always re-declare a PAN.

I have always been curious about a 'FULL' EMERGENCY. It implies there is also a PARTIAL EMERGENCY or a LITTLE BIT OF AN EMERGENCY or an INCY WINCY TINY EMERGENCY.

Is there really written down the term 'FULL' EMERGENCY?

@M.Mouse

https://publicapps.caa.co.uk/docs/33...il%202015).pdf

Section 5, Chapter 7

Happy reading !

Its been a while since I changed either a 1-11 or 737 nose wheel, but do they have a spacer fitted between the wheel and axle hub? :eek:

Mr Mouse

Look at webpage 339 of 468 of MATS part one.


RAT 5

Again I need a current ATCO to confirm this, but when I worked at Glasgow for my aerodrome MER, once the external agencies had been alerted, and they were deploying to the airport, it was not possible to cancel them from attending.

Turin. No spacer between wheel hub & axle, wheel fitted on axle large bush/ washer fitted, torqued to relevant torques, 2 securing screws inserted & wire locked.