JetBlue flight 29, an Embraer ERJ-190 (registration N273JB) from Washington National to Nassau, failed to show nose gear down and locked so the pilot decided to go around and make a low approach to allow visual inspection.
When I was a kid I was on a flight on approach to New York where the same thing happened, the nose gear was down and it was the indicator that was off (although the same precautions were taken as though the gear wasn’t).
They determined that the gear was not extended. It was nearly completely inside the wheel well. And since they weren’t able to rectify the situation, preparations were made to land with the gear up.
The procedure is to land while keeping the nose of the aircraft up as long as possible, and then lowering the nose onto the runway. That limits the impact, the speed, and the length of time that the aircraft’s nose is moving on the ground. Foam was applied to reduce the risk of fire.
The aircraft was evaucated, and none of the 93 passengers and four crew were hurt. Can’t say the same for the aircraft.
I wonder why they didn’t divert to FLL where they have longer runways and maintainence. It is a focus city for JetBlue.
Asia pacific airlines (P9) crew landed a 727-200 freighter 26Feb in guam without nose gear. After passes to verify gear door was still closed, including trying to jar door open with partial landing on third attempt. Aircraft successfully landed and damage minimal.
JetBlue had a similar incident in LA about 10 years ago. It was also caught on video. I think Toyota made a truck commercial based on the incident too.
What, if anything, do they tells passengers during all this I wonder?
Nissan, not Toyota, but it was a cute ad- http://youtu.be/FoSGzLii0KM
I’ll literally re-post the same comment as the LAST TIME Gary posted a gear landing video. From Patrick Smith, of course:
“But in truth, while landing gear malfunctions are sometimes splendidly telegenic, rarely if ever are they going to end in catastrophe. Trust me, the need to circle while pilots troubleshoot a gear problem, as happens every so often, is no reason to go scribbling your last will and testament on the back of a barf bag.”
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/transport/2013/07/la_guardia_landing_gear_malfunction_the_southwest_flight_wasn_t_in_great.html
So splendidly telegenic, but not particularly dangerous. I mean, pilots actually practice this exact scenario – it’s not like they don’t know what to do and (drum roll) they do it perfectly every 4 or 6 months. How many “horrible crash where everyone died because of no landing gear videos” have you seen? Oh yeah, zero.
Thanks for posting this, Gary, but the video is no longer available due to a copyright claim.
Surprised at the following:
1) No manual nose gear extraction system available?
2) Emergency trucks with foam a long way from landing, slow response…
3) Why did they not lay down a bed of foam pre-landing?
I am just a dumbass passenger who flew JetBlue from NAS last week… but curious.