US Air Nose Gear Collapse At PIT

[delldude]

What are the chances that they'll part 'er out on the spot if the damage is too great? 🙁

Edit: From a post on Airliners.net:

"I was just discussing this with my father, who's a maintenance control foreman for the Airbuses for USAirways here at PIT, said the damage is a lot worse than it looks. He said that the guys from the Boeing desk said the nose gear is really f'ed up. He wouldn't go any further in detail on how it happened, but he mentioned that the castings in the wheel well that hold the nose gear in place, were torn from the airframe."

Would be a big repair but its fixable by any means.....

HEAVY METAL

 

[E-TRONS]

DUDE,

We had a saying in CLT-Heavy: You didn't screw up until you can't fix it......and we can fix anything 😉 !!

This statement may not apply this time. Trunnion bearings torn out? Hyd fluid visible? Not too good at all. This repair bill is going to go off the charts! There is a whole lot of damage yet to be identified. Looks like a -300 will be coming out of the desert and this one will take her place. Then again, this could be an opportunity to perform the world's first section 41 transplant (kidding of course)!!

I have been thinking what actually happend here? I have never seen a gear fail like this during pushback ops in my 20+ aviation years.
Did the crew set the brakes prematurely while the tug performed an inadvertent "neutral drop" in reverse?? Was the gear handle moved in the cockpit for any reason? Whatever it was, it turned out to be the wrong combination. Stranger things have happened. I guess anything is possible if the planets are aligned just so.

In CLT a few years back, Saber Air Cargo had installed two new engines on one of their DC-3's. On the taxi out for the first flight thereafter, right before our eyes on the hangar ramp, both main gear retracted on the taxiway!! Bent the props all to heck, messed up the cowlings, etc. The TBO time on those engines were less than 30 minutes! A new world record. That was a sight one will never forget.

 

[FCYTravis]

Would be a big repair but its fixable by any means.....

Anything's fixable by the great people at US! 🙂 but I'm guessing that with a bunch of USAir 737s in the desert already, it won't be a very high threshold of repair costs to reach the point where it's cheaper to junk the bird and pull a replacement out of storage in Mojave.

 

[phasersonstun2]

Looks like a 304,900,000 profit.

 

[delldude]

Anything's fixable by the great people at US! 🙂 but I'm guessing that with a bunch of USAir 737s in the desert already, it won't be a very high threshold of repair costs to reach the point where it's cheaper to junk the bird and pull a replacement out of storage in Mojave.

I remember the effort they put into that F-100 that augered in nose first in 'Bama...was it 857?
It was probably worse than this and it flew again.

 

[A320 Driver]

Landing gear is outsourced, and it just depends when the 737 last had it C or Q check to see if ST MAE at BFM did it or was in done in CLT.

Well? BFM or CLT?

 

[RedOne]

Remember years ago when Piedmont had a 737 that had main gear to break during transition training.
.
boeing sent a 'team' to do the repairs....said it had never happened before. Watching them do their thing was something else. If memory serves me correct (and I'm now old and forgetfull) they brought 3 teams. worked round the clock. After seeing them, I bet it can be fixed.... just depends on who they call on to do the repairs ??? and cost.

 

[Boeing4me]

Any word yet on the post mortem of the accident? What actually failed on the nosegear and what is the prognosis of N529AU flying again?

 

[aerosmith]

I remember the effort they put into that F-100 that augered in nose first in 'Bama...was it 857?
It was probably worse than this and it flew again.

That was 867 better known as "Christine" it also lost a left MLG here in PIT about 10 years ago.

 

[propdoc]

Landing gear is outsourced, and it just depends when the 737 last had it C or Q check to see if ST MAE at BFM did it or was in done in CLT.

Well, where was the last heavy check done and when?

 

[propdoc]

had it's Q check in CLT.

Is this correct, how can it be? Quote edited to show the correct location of the last maintenance check.

 

[700UW]

Dont put words into my post, I said it could have been done at BFM or CLT.

 

[propdoc]

Dont put words into my post, I said it could have been done at BFM or CLT.

Well where was it done there sparky?

 

[insp89]

Well where was it done there sparky?

From what I have heard, [I cannot verify it], The Nose Gear Collapased due to a towing incident that occured at a previous station.

 

[BoeingBoy]

Thanks to coachrowsy, there's a new picture of a/c 529 as it sits in the hanger - shows close-up view of the lower nose.

Photo Album

Jim