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Glitch reported on ANA's Boeing Dreamliner

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Finally, a topic I know something about!

As a licensed Aircraft mechanic with 10+ years of experience., I never thought I'd get a chance to comment on JT!

well, in NORMAL operation an aircraft's landing gear is lowered/raised using hydraulic power supplied by the aircraft's engine-mounted hydraulic pumps. In case of the failure of any of the associated pumps, tubing, valves all aircraft have back up systems, which usually consist of tanks of pressurized nitrogen which are used to "blow down" the landing gear, by pressurizing the residual fluid in the aircraft.

5 ( +5 / -0 )

And nothing indicates it was an ANA fault either.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

Lucky this airline is called ANA All Nippon Airways and not All Nippon Airways Ltd, Other wise it would have been known as ANAL

3 ( +6 / -4 )

nandakandamanda- pneumatic systems are usually only pressurized for a single use. Modern aircraft are usually equipped with a primary emergency landing gear extension system, but a large majority of aircraft now use gravity assisted systems; Meaning that as long as its possible to open the landing gear doors open gravity will actually cause the landing gear to extend and lock in place.

In my opinion the pilot should be applauded for his/her (it's 2011, folks!) control of the aircraft. Flying a large commercial aircraft on final approach involves a great deal of concentration, luckily the pilot was on their P's and Q's.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

I do not think manual meant that he went down into the wheel well and and used a crank. How was it done?

2 ( +3 / -1 )

Landing gear is old technology and universal; it can and will be corrected immediately if there is something wrong.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Cactus. You must read the other posts before posting. :-)

2 ( +3 / -1 )

The glitch comes less than a week after a Boeing 767-300 with 220 passengers on board made an emergency landing on its belly at Warsaw international airport after its landing gear failed.

The 767-300 is a plane from the 80s. There's no relation to the 787 issue.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

At least the manual gear extension worked.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

STOP THE PRESS!! How is the landing gear not coming down deemed as a "Glitch".

A minor malfunction, mishap, or technical problem; a snag: a computer glitch; a navigational glitch; a glitch in the negotiations

There's nothing minor about the landing gear not extending. Lives hang in the balance. I could understand if an LED lamp went out or the CMD started making a buzzing sound or shut down.

The landing gear is a major component of the plane. The gear "FAILED" to extend and that's a MAJOR malfunction.

1 ( +6 / -5 )

From Reuters:

"Kyodo news agency linked the problem to a hydraulic valve."

"There are have been 10 accidents involving stuck landing wheels since 2000, none of them fatal, according to a database run by the Flight Safety Foundation (www.aviation-safety.net).

"The landing gear for the 787 Dreamliner is made by Messier-Dowty. Parent Safran (SAF.PA) was available to comment."

1 ( +1 / -0 )

The word 'glitch' is used only in the English translation.

The original Japanese reporting calls it 'trouble' and 'hiyari' which means a scary moment. The plane was 27 mins late on landing. A twitter message was sent at the time saying the main landing gear had failed to deploy properly.

They found another plane for the return flight, and ANA has meantime started using their second Dreamliner to fill in.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

I wonder how a carbon fiber fuselage stands up to a belly landing like that 767 in Poland last week.

1 ( +3 / -1 )

"landing gear failures are among the worst. Usually a pilot never experiences them, and when it happens it does make the news.. No one likes to be dependent on luck in order to survive."

ebisen: Did you read this?

"There are have been 10 accidents involving stuck landing wheels since 2000, none of them fatal, according to a database run by the Flight Safety Foundation (www.aviation-safety.net)."

1 ( +1 / -0 )

gear had not deployed

Happens to the best of us.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Investigating the cause of this "glitch" is crucial.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

Standard operating procedure.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Officially, the company's name is All Nippon Airways Co., Ltd. (Wikipedia)

0 ( +0 / -0 )

gelendestrasse, not a happy thought. Perhaps they would foam the runway, or use the grass. The biggest worry with carbon fiber is fire.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

landing gear failures are among the worst. Usually a pilot never experiences them, and when it happens it does make the news.. No one likes to be dependent on luck in order to survive..

0 ( +1 / -1 )

I just wondered what the specific procedure is for the 787.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Reminds us of that recent Polish airliner that landed safely without its landing gear:

http://www.newsday.com/news/plane-from-us-makes-emergency-landing-in-warsaw-1.3288504

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Well, they flew it back empty of passengers to Haneda.

As someone said, each incident can help improve aircraft safety for the future.

Personally speaking I really do not like this new generation of plastic planes, whether Boeing or Airbus or wherever. Great in some respects, not so clever in any crash.

Many thanks for the detailed reply, Technorati. Gravity, plus wind pressure I wonder?

Agreed on the cool resuts for the captain, crew and his plane-load of passengers.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Is that just a glitch?

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Meh. They'll get the plane for inspection in one piece, so the determination of what went wrong should be relatively quick and the re-design of the hydraulic system (if any is needed) given top priority. I wonder if Boeing was bitten by the same "counterfeit electronic parts from China" problem that the U.S. military experienced (as was reported in today's Washington Post)?

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Is it likely that they dumped most of the remaining fuel over the hills in those extra 27 mins while they were going around?

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Strange, I was following this on PPrune and suddenly it got taken off... No sign of the article any more. Anyone a member over there? Is Boeing trying to bury this news, or am I just plain old-fashioned paranoid?

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Noticed in today's Sanyo Shinbun newspaper, p30, that the 787 Okayama flight had a second serious problem yesterday.

The main computer screens controlling all flight systems came up in fault mode. Everything was checked and seemed to be working so they rebooted the computer; as it showed normal this time, they flew off to Haneda two and half hours late.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Lucky to be alive. Whenever something is first generation I tend to shy away from it until they work out all the bugs. I love planes very much so I'm glad that they were able to get on the ground safely.

-1 ( +3 / -4 )

"the pilot manually lowered the landing gear,"...what does this mean, exactly?

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

paulinusa - yes, I know the statistics. It still does not change what I've written, Planes are so reliable now that landing gear failures are among the worst that can happen. They can easily get ugly (think landing on a partially opened one - as in only the nose and one side gear) By the way, I'm a private pilot (PPL license for small one engined planes ans SPL for gliders) myself,

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Technorati, how many times can they do this in one flight?

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Great comments everybody!!

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Naturally Boieing and ANA engineers will want to work on this quietly and decide whether it was the warning light that was faulty or the landing gear mechanism itself.

So, in the meantime just trawling through some other news sites to try and pick up any other hints.

A member of "Fly Team" tweeted that the landing gear stayed locked in place, if I have understood the report correctly. http://flyteam.jp/news/article/5647

「収納されたまま」would seem to mean packed shut, put away, or fully retracted.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Most of commenter are Ex-pilots ....Heee.. hee.. He.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Well at least they didn't receive that 130 degree tip-over in midair like some passengers received back in September.

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

Wow the poor pilots had to drop the landing gear! What a story!

-4 ( +0 / -4 )

WE AE THE FIRST!!!

ANA, hey ANA now you first to have a malfunction too!!

-5 ( +1 / -6 )

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