Aircraft makes emergency landing
Flight crew avoids injury when landing gear fails to descend
Published: Monday, January 25, 2010 12:27 PM CST
BREAKING NEWS – A pilot and co-pilot of a twin-engine commercial aircraft walked away from their aircraft’s belly landing at the Powell River airport.
At 8:15 am on Monday, January 25, Powell River RCMP were called to the airport regarding an aircraft in distress. It was reported that an Orca Airways Piper Navaho was unable to lower its landing gear and was attempting an emergency landing.
RCMP Sergeant Cam Muir said at the time of this incident there were no passengers onboard the aircraft, which was being operated by the two flight crew.
"Upon receiving this report, all local emergency services attended to the airport," Muir said. "The flight crew was able to successfully land the aircraft on its belly. There were no injuries and only the aircraft sustained damage."
The Powell River airport was closed to air traffic on Monday morning while crews prepared the aircraft for removal. Muir said Transport Canada had been advised of this incident and the RCMP are conducting preliminary inquires on its behalf.
There must be more to this than a gear failure, otherwise I'm sure they would have returned to YVR for many reasons...long runway, no trees etc, emerg. services, company base and mtx., etc. Glad to hear everyone is alright.
Invertago wrote:Maybe Viking should put the Ho back in production.
Folks have come up dumber ideas. The mighty Ho is a good airplane. We could at least develop some sort of belly skid system, so the pilots don't have to worry about the inconvenience of having to lower the gear...
Generally if the props are bent forward, it would indicate an application of power at the last second before T/D. I've seen that on more occasions than I want to remember
Does the Navajo have a micro switch on the throttle quadrant that sets off the gear horn at low manifold pressure? If I recall the Cessna twins do and sometimes they are not set properly. The only way to set them is to do a test flight to see that the horn is set properly. I know it looks like it may be the crew's fault in this one (We'll have to wait and see.) but if the gear horn was not set right this could definitely be a contributing factor. If the horn worked properly they may have had enough warning to do a go around and put the gear down.
GARRETT wrote:Does the Navajo have a micro switch on the throttle quadrant that sets off the gear horn at low manifold pressure? If I recall the Cessna twins do and sometimes they are not set properly. The only way to set them is to do a test flight to see that the horn is set properly. I know it looks like it may be the crew's fault in this one (We'll have to wait and see.) but if the gear horn was not set right this could definitely be a contributing factor. If the horn worked properly they may have had enough warning to do a go around and put the gear down.
They didn't put the gear down. Screw the switch. Warning!! Warning, don't crap yet! Your pants are still up! Shall we all hold hands and sing Kumbaya?
The thing that gets me is courier runs have some of the most demanding types of flying in the industry and generally in older airplanes yet that is where you find the least experienced pilots usually working for wages that are below the minimum wage in the rest of society.
Could that have anything to do with these accidents?
---------- ADS -----------
The hardest thing about flying is knowing when to say no
After over a half a century of flying no one ever died because of my decision not to fly.
GARRETT wrote:Does the Navajo have a micro switch on the throttle quadrant that sets off the gear horn at low manifold pressure? If I recall the Cessna twins do and sometimes they are not set properly. The only way to set them is to do a test flight to see that the horn is set properly. I know it looks like it may be the crew's fault in this one (We'll have to wait and see.) but if the gear horn was not set right this could definitely be a contributing factor. If the horn worked properly they may have had enough warning to do a go around and put the gear down.
Yes Navajos have the micro switch, but whether or not the horn is working or even installed in no way excuses failure to put the gear down.
I never expected an operator from the South Side to have a safety issue.
