Pilots forget to retract landing gear, almost run out of fuel!

LMAO! HAHAHA And I thought I was bad in the Sim! I recently forgot to raise my flaps after passing 200 knots! There goes my flaps!

 

 

 

Two pilots have been suspended from duty after their aircraft, carrying 99 passengers, nearly ran out of fuel because they forgot to retract the landing gear after take-off.

 

Air India Flight AI676 was en route to Mumbai from Kolkata on July 22 but was forced to divert to Nagpur when the crew became alarmed by the speed at which the aircraft was losing fuel thanks to the additional drag created by the extended wheels.

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/news/air-india-forgotten-landing-gear-low-fuel/

Apparently the pilots (both female) became aware that the gear was stuck down because of the high fuel consumption. The gear was stuck down because the ground crew didn't remove the gear lock pins before pushback, but the pilots have been suspended due to (allegedly) typical Indian misogyny. I hope Air India re-instates them both with commendations instead of cautions.

Maybe they should have returned to the airport they just took off from instead of continuing their flight. I hope they get released from AirIndia.

The gear was stuck down because the ground crew didn't remove the gear lock pins before pushback..

In this case it's impossible that they didn't immediately realize that the gear is down.

If you select the gear UP and it actually stays DOWN all hell breaks loose in the cockpit due to the GEAR DISAGREE warnings!

Maybe they should have returned to the airport they just took off from instead of continuing their flight. I hope they get released from AirIndia.

 

Not if they were over landing weight, with unknown gear problems, and Kolkata was too busy at the time - plus Nagpur may have better maintenance facilities than Kolkata or Mumbai.

 

In this case it's impossible that they didn't immediately realize that the gear is down.

If you select the gear UP and it actually stays DOWN all hell breaks loose in the cockpit due to the GEAR DISAGREE warnings!

 

Not in an A320! Apparently current Airbus SOP's don't include an after take-off checklist either.

1. Not if they were over landing weight, with unknown gear problems

2.Not in an A320! Apparently current Airbus SOP's don't include an after take-off checklist either.

1.If they didn't realize that the gear wasn't up, how should they assume that they have a gear problem?

Furthermore it doesn't matter if you are above or below max landing weight when you have to re-land

 

2. Are you serious? Even the cheapest GA single with a retractable gear shows a red warning if the gear isn't down if the lever is down (and in the up case as well).

FYI, there's a bunch of aural and visual cautions in this case in the A320.

Although an after take off checklist isn't necessary in the A320 due to the dark cockpit philosophy I haven't seen an A320 operator without this checklist until now.

It normaly consists of just 2 items: gear & ecam memo.

1.If they didn't realize that the gear wasn't up, how should they assume that they have a gear problem?

Furthermore it doesn't matter if you are above or below max landing weight when you have to re-land

 

2. Are you serious? Even the cheapest GA single with a retractable gear shows a red warning if the gear isn't down if the lever is down (and in the up case as well).

FYI, there's a bunch of aural and visual cautions in this case in the A320.

Although an after take off checklist isn't necessary in the A320 due to the dark cockpit philosophy I haven't seen an A320 operator without this checklist until now.

It normaly consists of just 2 items: gear & ecam memo.

 

1. The fuel consumption gave them the clue, apparently the instruments were not showing any warnings. Max landing weight certainly DOES matter, that's why there IS a max landing weight.

2. Each airline chooses it's own range of instruments and systems. No two aircraft of the same type but used by different airlines will have identical instruments or systems, and the same goes for each airline's Standard Operating Procedures (checklists etc). There's also a huge difference between the aircraft safety features required in India, and those required in Europe or the USA.

None of this matters in any case, my original point was that the pilots have been blamed for a ground crew error, which the media have ignored as usual in order to sell a sensational story.

1... apparently the instruments were not showing any warnings.

2. Max landing weight certainly DOES matter, that's why there IS a max landing weight.

3. Each airline chooses it's own range of instruments and systems.

4. There's also a huge difference between the aircraft safety features required in India, and those required in Europe or the USA.

5. my original point was that the pilots have been blamed for a ground crew error.

1. And again, it's not possible to have the gear down with the lever up without getting warnings. Not in the A320 or any other Airbus, Boeing etc. I don't know why you continue to believe that.

 

2. The max landing weight restriction is there for a lot of reasons, e.g. approach speed, flap limit, ROD limit etc. but it definitely doesn't prevent you from landing even at max take off weight.

On the A320 there's a landing report available after the landing and if the g-load/ROD is below a certain threshold the overweight landing inspection takes less than 5min.

3. The airline can opt for additional systems like an entertainment system etc. but they can not choose if they want to buy safety relevant systems!

 

4. Do you have an example concerning the 'huge' difference?

 

5. If it would have been the case that the ground crew forgot to remove the gear pins it would still have been pilot error because the pilot is responsible for the airworthiness of the plane. He has to make sure that the gear pins have been removed prior to flight!

Every aircraft I've seen depart the engineer walks away far enough for the pilot to see, then holds up the pin then gets a wave off from the pilot, in this case it didn't heppen for some reason.

Every aircraft I've seen depart the engineer walks away far enough for the pilot to see, then holds up the pin then gets a wave off from the pilot, in this case it didn't heppen for some reason.

That's something different and as you have correctly observed it's just a single pin, not 3.

In case of the A320 it's the nosegear bypass steering pin that's being shown to the pilots.

There are no gearpins installed during pushback/startup.

A320 flight crew misses single gear pin on preflight and left main gear will not retract after takeoff. Flight crew discusses factors that led to this omission:

 

http://www.37000feet.com/report/746497/A320-flight-crew-misses-single-gear-pin-on-preflight-and-left-main

And that's why they got an ECAM caution. Exactly what I've mentioned before and something you don't want to accept for whatever reason....

Ah right, my mistake.

And that's why they got an ECAM caution. Exactly what I've mentioned before and something you don't want to accept for whatever reason....

 

There you go again. "They got an ECAM caution" - how do you know? Were you there? Two posts ago you said gear pins don't exist, or have you forgotten?

1."They got an ECAM caution" - how do you know? Were you there?

2.Two posts ago you said gear pins don't exist, or have you forgotten?

1. How do I know? As an ex A319/320/321 Captain I do have the system knowledge to tell you that IF the gearpin(s) were installed, they would have gotten visual and aural caution messages.

2. You are mixing up two different scenarios and I never said 'gear pins don't exist'.

 

I have no idea why someone with such a glaring lack of system knowledge constantly tries to argue with someone who knows the A320 inside out.

 

FYI, I've tried to continue this useless discussion via PM but unfortunately (or fortunately?) it's full.