TSB deploys a team of investigators to a landing incident at the Calgary International Airport, Alberta

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Diadem
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TSB deploys a team of investigators to a landing incident at the Calgary International Airport, Alberta

Post by Diadem »

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Re: TSB deploys a team of investigators to a landing incident at the Calgary International Airport, Alberta

Post by linecrew »

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Re: TSB deploys a team of investigators to a landing incident at the Calgary International Airport, Alberta

Post by Inverted2 »

Fortunately the nose gear didn't collapse this time.
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Re: TSB deploys a team of investigators to a landing incident at the Calgary International Airport, Alberta

Post by pelmet »

A limited scope report has been issued.

http://www.bst-tsb.gc.ca/eng/rapports-r ... w0052.html

Here is a portion of what happened...

History of the flight
On 09 April 2018, the Air Georgian Ltd. Beechcraft 1900D aircraft (registration C-GZGA, serial number UE-306) operating as flight 7228 (GGN7228) from Cranbrook/Canadian Rockies International Airport (CYXC), British Columbia, to Calgary International Airport (CYYC), Alberta, departed at 1910Footnote 1 with 2 flight crew members and 8 passengers on board. The captain, seated in the left seat, was the pilot flying; the first officer, seated in the right seat, was the pilot monitoring.

While the aircraft was taxiing, an unusual noise was heard coming from the airframe. The captain thought there was a possibility that ice had accumulated in the main landing gear brake assemblies, so he turned on the brake de-ice system. Once he noticed that the outside air temperature was 10 °C, the system was turned off. By this time, the aircraft had back-taxied on Runway 16 and, while the aircraft was turning around, the noise stopped. Because the noise stopped, both the captain and the first officer thought that the issue had been resolved and carried out a normal takeoff from Runway 16.

As the aircraft was climbing toward 15 000 feet above sea level (ASL), the captain noticed that the landing gear in-transit light was on. Arrangements were made with air traffic control to level off at 17 000 feet ASL, and speed was reduced to allow for the operation of the landing gear. The landing gear was selected to the down position and 3 green down-and-locked light indications were obtained. The captain then selected the landing gear up.

While the landing gear was retracting, an unusual sound was heard. All the landing gear lights went out, indicating that the landing gear was up and locked.

The flight proceeded to CYYC, using the VESGA FOUR ARR arrival route for Runway 17R. The crew discussed the possibility of a landing gear issue and planned to land as smoothly as possible. The aircraft touched down approximately 3000 feet down the runway, just before the intersection with Runway 11/29. The touchdown on the main wheels was smooth, but, as the nose wheel touched the runway, there was an immediate shimmy followed by a drop in the pitch attitude when the nose wheel became separated from the nose wheel assembly. A grinding noise was heard and the tower controller informed the crew that sparks were coming from the front of the aircraft.

The crew declared an emergency. Once the aircraft came to a stop on the runway, the passengers were evacuated via the main cabin door and taken to the terminal by an airport shuttle bus. There were no injuries, and there was no fire. The emergency locater transmitter did not activate.


There is a reason for every unusual noise that come from an airplane but figuring out what it is can be difficult. Could taxiing for a while longer to see if the noise would come back have helped? Who knows. The noise stopped while turning around for takeoff. Perhaps consider taxiing clear of the runway and along a taxiway for a minute or so.
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Last edited by pelmet on Tue Apr 30, 2019 5:31 pm, edited 1 time in total.
rigpiggy
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Re: TSB deploys a team of investigators to a landing incident at the Calgary International Airport, Alberta

Post by rigpiggy »

Had similar issue years back the wheel bearing had seized, and broke the cotter pin. Next takeoff tire departed and called back by tower with a how many wheels do you have? 5! No, I think we have one here. 2nd time it happened sounded like a dragging brake on touchdown, taxied in, the tire had backed off the bearing and the rim ground the gear leg such as to replace the assy. sounds like the 2nd time
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digits_
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Re: TSB deploys a team of investigators to a landing incident at the Calgary International Airport, Alberta

Post by digits_ »

First of all, I'm not blaming the crew for their actions, it seems to be an industry standard out here.

However, I am wondering why pilots, mechanics and management seem to want to try and get the gear up and locked when there is a transit light issue. If the gear behaves abnormaly, I would stop trying things as soon as I get 3 greens. If the gear up doesn't lock, depending on the airplane I would either fly it with the gear unsafe to destination or maintenance base, or lower it and keep flying it with the gear down so maintenance can figure out why it didn't lock.

On at least 3 occasions I have had:
- maintenance tell me in the air to just try it again and see if it locks
- training pilot tell me to just try it again
- the other crew member tell me to just try it again

While I admit this did solve the light indication, I've always wondered how stupid everyone involved (including me) would look if we raised the gear again and it wouldn't lock down anymore. From anecdotal information, this seems to be a typical Canadian thing.

Any thoughts?
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FlyGy
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Re: TSB deploys a team of investigators to a landing incident at the Calgary International Airport, Alberta

Post by FlyGy »

The narrative doesn't state it, so is it safe to assume that the gear indicators were illuminated to confirm the gear was down and locked prior to landing ay YYC?

From the sounds of things, the gear was operating normally, it was the wheel that departed the aircraft.

Even had they left the gear down when they noticed the transit light, this incident still would have occurred.
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goingnowherefast
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Re: TSB deploys a team of investigators to a landing incident at the Calgary International Airport, Alberta

Post by goingnowherefast »

I never touch it. If it won't lock up, put it back down and let maintenance figure it out.
If it won't lock down, I go straight to alternate gear extension. I'm not cycling it unless you can tell me for certain that cycling the gear won't make it worse.

I remember hearing a while back that a King Air crew took off with a tow bar attached. Of course they had gear transit problems. After cycling the gear a couple times, managed to screw things up enough that it wouldn't lock down. Whether it's a tow bar, a rock, or any sort of FOD, it will cause damage every time the gear moves. Once it's down and locked, it's in a safe position where you can land.

Only exception would be a AFM or QRH procedure directing the gear to be cycled.
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Pacqing
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Re: TSB deploys a team of investigators to a landing incident at the Calgary International Airport, Alberta

Post by Pacqing »

Seized wheel bearings and gear retraction issues can be 2 separate problems. But if a wheel either nose or main is the culprit then it can prevent a proper retraction. If a bearing seizes then its not lubed or the nut is torqued to tight. Chances are its torqued to tight. Are all maintenance people uesing torque wrenches when putting on wheels? Are the apprentices doing the lowly task of wheel bearings?
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Re: TSB deploys a team of investigators to a landing incident at the Calgary International Airport, Alberta

Post by iflyforpie »

You don’t usually use a torque wrench when putting on a wheel. You tighten in by hand as you rotate the wheel assembly to push any excess grease out of the bearings and get them properly seated and when it’s snug you cotter pin it at the nearest castellation. They aren’t lug nuts.

Packing bearings is easy. It’s not a science. Either you use your hands or a bearing packer and whether you use a little or a lot of grease has more of a factor on how much mess you make rather than determining the life of the bearings. The key risks are making sure it doesn’t have any solvent left in it, right grease, right assembly, and not dropping them or spinning them with an air nozzle.

It takes a lot of neglect to have a wheel bearing seize.
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Geez did I say that....? Or just think it....?
palebird
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Re: TSB deploys a team of investigators to a landing incident at the Calgary International Airport, Alberta

Post by palebird »

You always torque an aircrat wheel onto the axle. First is a higher torque to seat the bearings and then back off the nut. Then you retorque to a lower number as per the manual. Don't know what this guy is talking about when he says you never torque a wheel. Never been around large aircraft obviously.
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iflyforpie
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Re: TSB deploys a team of investigators to a landing incident at the Calgary International Airport, Alberta

Post by iflyforpie »

Does a 727 count?
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Pacqing
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Re: TSB deploys a team of investigators to a landing incident at the Calgary International Airport, Alberta

Post by Pacqing »

maintenance manual says tighten to 100 or whatever then back off to 0 then re tighten to a SMALL torque. this is for smaller machines so I'm guessing its the same for larger as stated. there was an issue with over torqued nuts and seized bearings a while back so the buzz around the industry was USE the manual. for a while a lot used a torque wrench but now I'm seeing a drift back to the old ways. some companies have the paperwork set up so on a wheel change you need to record the Tq wrench s.n.calibration date etc.
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corethatthermal
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Re: TSB deploys a team of investigators to a landing incident at the Calgary International Airport, Alberta

Post by corethatthermal »

I have witnessed literally dozens and dozens of loose wheel bearings, one of the reasons is that folks dont do the high torque run-on seating, another may be because they are afraid of overtorquing/. Yes, on large A/C ( ive done wheels from J-3 to B747 etc) ALWAYS use the manual and torque wrench, on small A/C you can use your head!
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