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Highlights
- Crew members were not able to retract the main landing gear after the take-off of the Boeing 787 aircraft.
- The Boeing 787 aircraft of Qantas was scheduled to fly from Sydney to Perth with 106 passengers and 13 crew members.
- The incident took place on 21 June 2021.
The Boeing 787 aircraft of Qantas was scheduled to fly from Sydney to Perth with 106 passengers and 13 crew members. A few moments after the take-off from Sydney Airport, an issue was reported by crew members with the landing gear. Crew members were not able to retract the main landing gear after the take-off.
The incident took place on 21 June 2021, and the final report on the investigation by ATSB (Australian Transport Safety Bureau) was released on 16 November 2021.
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The issue was not resolved by using the aircraft’s electronic checklist, and then pilot landing gear was selected to down. After receiving the positive indication, the safe landing was done in Sydney.
What was the exact issue with the aircraft?
An investigation was conducted by ATSB, and it was found that multiple human errors were responsible for the incident. Before takeoff, two pins were not removed from the right and left landing gear. Due to this, malfunctioning happened during the flight.
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Downlock pins are used to lock the plane's landing gears when they are on the ground and are installed manually. However, after towing the aircraft, only 3 out of 5 down locks were removed from the aircraft at the terminal of Sydney. As per the report, the incident took place because of inexperience, miscommunication and misunderstanding amongst the staff.
Bottom Line
The incident occurred because of human error, and investigation further highlighted that the staff responsible for removing the gear pins was doing it for the first time. So, Qantas has to take significant steps to ensure that such an incident does not happen again.
