Guest Posted November 15, 2018 Share Posted November 15, 2018 Plane with landing gear issue makes emergency landing at Stephenville airport A plane headed for Deer Lake in western Newfoundland made an emergency landing at Stephenville airport today because of an issue with its landing gear. None of 51 aboard injured on Provincial Airlines flight from Wabush CBC News · Posted: Nov 15, 2018 1:22 PM NT | Last Updated: 11 minutes ago Fifty-one people were on this plane when it made an emergency landing at Stephenville airport. (Submitted) A plane headed for Deer Lake in western Newfoundland made an emergency landing at Stephenville airport today because of an issue with its landing gear. The Provincial Airlines Flight 1922 plane tried to land in Deer Lake when it encountered the problem, the airline said in a news release. Given adverse weather conditions in Deer Lake, the pilot circled around before heading to Stephenville, where an emergency landing was necessary. It was nothing like I was expecting. I was expecting more of a grind coming to a halt, but you didn't even feel it.- Passenger Gene Babb There were 47 passengers and four crew aboard the Dash 8 aircraft, PAL said, and no injuries. Gene Babb, who was on the flight, said the pilot and crew did a "phenomenal job" under the circumstances. "I survived a plane crash. It's something to say. It's not often or not many people who get to be involved in that," Babb told CBC News. "Not that you would want to, but no, I just look back and think it's cool. Great job. I was more impressed with the pilot and the crew. They were phenomenal, I gotta say." Babb said the flight was originally scheduled to land in Deer Lake before carrying on to St. John's, but the pilot found an issue with the landing gear. 'Everything will be OK' They circled around for another hour and eventually the flight made its way to Stephenville. The pilot came on the announcement system to tell people to prepare for an emergency landing, and Babb said that's when people got nervous. The Current 'I didn't want to die': Plane crash survivor and rescuer share their stories "When they announced that we had to be in cross position for landing, to put your head down or your hands across the back of your chair, that's when people started getting a little bit worried and panicked," he said. "You had kids crying, some of the guys were nervous and stuff like that. That's when I guess it got real." Babb himself has put some hours in flying an aircraft, his father was a pilot and his sister-in-law is a pilot for Air Canada, so he said he wasn't nervous. "I was trying to calm the passengers around me down, let them know everything will be OK," said Babb. "The landing was actually extremely smooth and the plane came to a stop and had a bit of a jolt, and no more to it than that." Runway lights were on, snow was falling in plane crash that killed Brampton couple Some people were crying when they got off the plane, but more out of relief than out of fear, he said. "More excitement of course when the plane stopped and all was good," Babb said. "It was nothing like I was expecting. I was expecting more of a grind coming to a halt, but you didn't even feel it." Babb said passengers are waiting at the airport and eating pizza while they await the arrival of PAL staff, who are en route to Stephenville at the moment, according to a release from the airline Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
conehead Posted November 15, 2018 Share Posted November 15, 2018 Nice job. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moon The Loon Posted November 15, 2018 Share Posted November 15, 2018 9 minutes ago, conehead said: Nice job. Agreed. On the centreline. One does need to highlight how very important words from the flight deck are during an emergency. If the pilot sounds nervous or doesn't use carefully chosen words, passengers can react in a multitude of ways, not many of which are good. With the nose in such a downward position, it was good judgment (in my opinion) to use the 1R exit rather than trying to get persons to navigate a partially deployed airstair. Well done, PAL crew both flight and ground staff! As a sideline, I'm very interested to find out why the alternate extension (free-fall on the DH8) did not work. Perhaps it did and the mechanical (geometric over-centre) downlock didn't stay engaged... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
st27 Posted November 15, 2018 Share Posted November 15, 2018 Nice to hear a story like this... good job to those involved! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kip Powick Posted November 16, 2018 Share Posted November 16, 2018 Babb (Passenger on PAL) listening to a fellow describe how he almost had a collision with another car while coming to Thanksgiving party Babb "I survived a plane crash. It's something to say. It's not often or not many people who get to be involved in that," Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Canoehead Posted November 19, 2018 Share Posted November 19, 2018 Hopefully the crew walked into the Chief Pilot's office and put the alternate extension handle and cable on his desk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Canoehead Posted November 20, 2018 Share Posted November 20, 2018 2 hours ago, Moon The Loon said: The NLG on the Dash 8 is pumped down, not activated by the pull-handle in the roof. I do get the gist of your comment though. There are a couple of "gotcha's" in the DeHavilland pump system, which should come out in the investigation... Hi Moon, The manual/alternate pump is only a part of the main gear extension system. The nose gear alternate extension is completely reliant on pulling up on the release handle in the floor (adjacent the pump handle for the mains). It basically releases the uplock allowing the nose gear to free-fall. No hydraulic back up for the nose, only the mains. All things being equal, all 3 gear should free-fall. As the mains extend forward into the relative airflow, the pump is used to aid in locking them down, and only if required. Confusion can be from the fact that there are two separate locations for Alt Gear Extension controls that are all integral to the entire alternate extension system. The pump handle in the floor (directly adjacent to the nose gear release handle) has nothing to do with the nose gear. As you stated, there are some "gotchas" with the alternate system (both on the 100/300, and Q400). I know of 2 incidents (one in Europe and one in New Zealand) where DH8's landed with the nose gear retracted due to system unfamiliarity, or not pulling up hard enough on that release handle. Both cases, if handled correctly, would not have ended up with embarrassing pictures posted on Google. The QRH's have been re-worded over the years to convey the fact that there may be high forces required to overcome the uplocks. As I always sum it up in training, "pull until you achieve the desired result". Hence my cable on the CP's desk comment Regardless, this was minor. We have seen worse brought on by landing gear issues (thinking Eastern L1011 in the Everglades). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moon The Loon Posted November 20, 2018 Share Posted November 20, 2018 21 hours ago, Canoehead said: Hi Moon, The manual/alternate pump is only a part of the main gear extension system. The nose gear alternate extension is completely reliant on pulling up on the release handle in the floor (adjacent the pump handle for the mains). It basically releases the uplock allowing the nose gear to free-fall. No hydraulic back up for the nose, only the mains. All things being equal, all 3 gear should free-fall. As the mains extend forward into the relative airflow, the pump is used to aid in locking them down, and only if required. Confusion can be from the fact that there are two separate locations for Alt Gear Extension controls that are all integral to the entire alternate extension system. The pump handle in the floor (directly adjacent to the nose gear release handle) has nothing to do with the nose gear. As you stated, there are some "gotchas" with the alternate system (both on the 100/300, and Q400). I know of 2 incidents (one in Europe and one in New Zealand) where DH8's landed with the nose gear retracted due to system unfamiliarity, or not pulling up hard enough on that release handle. Both cases, if handled correctly, would not have ended up with embarrassing pictures posted on Google. The QRH's have been re-worded over the years to convey the fact that there may be high forces required to overcome the uplocks. As I always sum it up in training, "pull until you achieve the desired result". Hence my cable on the CP's desk comment Regardless, this was minor. We have seen worse brought on by landing gear issues (thinking Eastern L1011 in the Everglades). Damm - I got it backwards. Original post removed. Apologies to all! Back to the books for me.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Canoehead Posted November 21, 2018 Share Posted November 21, 2018 All good... I look at it as a great opportunity for discussion. Good ol' "hangar flying"! Something I miss these days... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kip Powick Posted November 21, 2018 Share Posted November 21, 2018 Very nice to see a civil discussion between two professionals........as they say in the Navy......".Bravo Zulu ".......(Well Done)... PS....I only spent one year in the RCN and then saw the light and joined the RCAF Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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