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Accident: Ethiopian B787 at Addis Ababa on Mar 4th 2016, nose gear collapsed at gate
An Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 787-800, registration ET-ASH performing flight ET-702 from Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) to Rome Fiumicino (Italy), had completed boarding and was about to depart when the aircraft settled on its nose after the nose gear collapsed. One flight attendant received minor injuries, the aircraft received substantial damage. (avherald.com) Más...Sort type: [Top] [Newest]
Very interesting that this happened so soon after an almost identical incident of nose gear collapse at a different airlines? Don't people read the news and learn something?
Standard airline procedures for nearly all airlines are that the gear pins are pulled before the pilot doing the preflight goes back into the cockpit. If gear pins are installed, it requires a logbook entry saying they are installed and another signing them off when they are removed so that the aircraft doesn't accidentally takeoff with them installed, preventing a retraction and a return to airport. The only pin that is used during pushback is a steering bypass pin that the pushback crew inserts which has nothing to do with the gear locks, but allows the nosewheel to turn (against hydraulic pressure) when required by the tug. Because of this, my guess id that the overcenter lock might have been misaligned somewhere in the process of extension, taxiing (who knows) and the gear just collapsed. If you think about it...the aircraft is traveling in a forward direction exerting pressure in an aft direction on the gear and could conceivably keep the gear "locked. Once brakes are released and an aft motion and pressure is put on the nose wheel, it all comes apart and collapses. JMHO
Pardon me but you did read the part of the report that says the engineer put the gear lever up without first installing the lock pins? In any case the overcenter lock link will have big springs pulling the link towards lock so to unlock due to push back forces is not very likely. It uses a small hyd actuator to overcome the spring force and move the link to unlock and thus allow the gear to retract. The lock pin we all are referring to is the pin that is inserted into the lock link to stop it from unlocking. EVEN WHEN hyd pressure is on and the gear lever is moved to up. The B737 is the only jet airliner that I know of that is pushed back with this lock pin inserted and removed after push back
I have pushed hundreds of 737's before, but we never used lock pins. Just a bypass pin.
Where i work the B737 has 2 pins inserted for pushback. 1 is a long pin inserted in the lock link. Other pin is the bypass pin. However I have not worked on B737 for a number of years. The last I worked on were the dash 400 B737. Perhaps the later series do not use the down lock pins for push back
No the next gens still have them. Only one airline at my airport uses then gear pin. Another one uses it also only for tows.
As a post comment...that steering bypass pin is pulled following pushback so the flight crew can have nose wheel steering back; again it has nothing to do with gear extension or retraction.