Safety Topics

Abstract

A BAC One‐Eleven aircraft departed Stansted for Gatwick on its first flight subsequent to a B2 Maintenance Check. On selection of landing gear up after take‐off, the red gear‐unsafe light remained on, indicating that the landing gear was not fully retracted. In addition, an abnormal vibration from the nose landing gear area was noted. The landing gear lever was lowered and the annunciator lights then indicated that both main gears had locked down, but that the nose gear had not, which latter was confirmed by the nose gear mechanical indicator. Standsted Air Traffic Control informed the crew, after a fly‐past with landing lights on, that the nose landing gear appeared to be down. The landing gear free‐fall lever was then operated and as there was no change in indications the lever was returned to its normal position in order to retract the main landing gear doors and prevent possible damage by runway contact should the nose landing gear collapse on landing. Checklists cautioned against returning the lever to normal in flight, but did not cater for the situation where free‐fall lever operation did not achieve full gear extension. It was noted that the Checklist caution was at odds with a placard adjacent to the free‐fall lever warning only that the ‘lever must not be reset until normal gear lever is selected down’ and thus implying that an in‐flight reset was acceptable.