A report in The Canberra Times says that QantasLink Dash 8 flew three times between Canberra and Sydney earlier this year with an undercarriage that could not retract automatically.
The Civil Aviation Safety Authority investigated the aircraft and discovered that air had made its way into the hydraulic system meant to retract the landing gear.
CASA asked Qantas to change its operations procedure and the plane’s manufacturer to modify its maintenance manuals.
The authority was alerted to the incidents by a Canberra aviation economist, Akis Haralabopoulos, who told it that on Monday, January 28, he had travelled to Canberra aboard QF1461 ”with a limited but reasonable view to the starboard turbo-propeller and landing gear”.
He said that after take-off there had been ”a strange whirring noise” from the right and the captain announced that the right landing gear was not retracting.
”The landing gear, to my amazement and best visual assessment, was neither fully extended down nor fully retracted,” Mr Haralabopoulos wrote.
The captain announced that the landing gear would be retracted manually.
Mr Haralabopoulos wrote to CASA, ”I considered this to be unusual but did not contemplate lodging a complaint.
”However, on Friday morning, February 1, 2008, I was alerted that a colleague of mine also flew on two Dash 8 Q400 flights, also on Monday, January 28.
”I was advised by my colleague that the crew retracted the gear manually whilst en route to Sydney.” “I presume that this is the same aircraft I had just arrived on.”
”On my colleague’s afternoon return flight from Sydney to Canberra, the starboard landing gear [again] did not retract.” “The captain on this occasion returned to Sydney Airport.”
Mr Haralabopoulos told CASA ”a reasonable assessment that three separate flights experienced difficulty retracting landing gear all in one day and all requiring manual intervention strongly indicates that there are underlying problems with the aircraft’s airworthiness”.
After what it termed an ”extensive investigation” lasting four months, CASA wrote that its flight operations and airworthiness inspectorate determined that the hydraulic pump meant to retract the wheel had failed, activating the back-up power transfer unit.
”It would appear that the same aircraft you travelled upon twice returned to the point of departure due to undercarriage problems caused by air in the hydraulic system.”
”The aircraft was subsequently removed from service for inspection.” “It is important to note that these returns were purely precautionary and the aircraft could have proceeded on to its destination in complete safety.”
A Report by The Mole from The Canberra Times
