American Eagle has alerted pilots of its Embraer ERJ-145 family about potential issues with the regional jet's landing gear following a wheels-up landing incident at Boston Logan International airport last week.
In the 20 June incident, the pilots on an ERJ-135 flight from Toronto received three green lights on the panel indicating the gear was down and locked. The gear remained stowed, however, and the aircraft (N731BE) touched down partially on the Boston runway, damaging the wing flaps and leaving a trail of sparks, before lifting off again on a go-around.
The US National Transportation Safety Board confirms that the aircraft contacted the runway during the landing attempt before the go-around. This damaged the flaps, which would not retract after the aircraft became airborne once more.
In an initial assessment the NTSB says the pilots believed the gear had been lowered. "The crew reported that they had an indication that the gear was down and locked but, right before touchdown, they noticed a landing-gear lever disagree," says the agency. "Eyewitnesses to the first landing stated that they did not see the gear down on the approach."
The pilots then lowered the gear manually and performed fly-bys of the tower before making a normal landing. There were no injuries to the four crew and 37 passengers.
The airline says that all Embraer ERJ flight releases now include information on how pilots should respond to certain instrument readings before attempting to touch down.
The NTSB says the crew noted a "landing gear lever" disagree indication in the cockpit before touching down.
Preliminary analyses point to the aircraft's landing gear electronics unit, built by Parker Aerospace. Investigators removed the unit and later that night were able to duplicate the problem, apparently caused by an electrical short, at Parker's facilities in Long Island, New York.
Neither the airline nor Embraer are commenting on the incident, citing the ongoing NTSB investigation. The US Federal Aviation Administration said last week that it had not yet decided whether to issue an emergency airworthiness directive to evaluate the entire fleet
Source: Flight International
