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Qantas Dreamliner left with main landing gear locking pins in place
November 17th 2021
A Qantas Boeing 787-9 was unable to retract its landing gear after it took off from Sydney airport because locking pins had been left in place, Australian investigators have found. Read More » The Perth-bound plane with 106 passengers and 13 crew on board was forced to return to the airport on June 21 after the flight crew were unable to resolve the issue. It was discovered that two of five landing gear locking pins had been left in place by ground crew who had not towed a B787 before and were used to dealing with other Qantas aircraft, such as the A330 and 737, that used three pins. “Pins are inserted into the nose and main landing gear when the aircraft is on the ground to prevent inadvertent gear retraction during maintenance or towing,” said Australian Transport Safety Bureau director transport safety, Stuart Macleod. “In this case two of the pins – one of the two for each main landing gear – had not been removed after towing and prior to the flight. In addition, subsequent pre-flight inspections by the flight and dispatch crew did not identify that the pins remained in place prior to departure.” Investigators determined another factor in the incident related to where the landing gear pins were stowed. Pins on the B737 and A330 are stowed on the flight deck but those on the 787 are stowed in the aircraft’s electrical equipment centre aft of the nose gear. Qantas advised it was working to relocate the 787 gear pin stowage to the flight deck to bring it into line with other aircraft in its fleet and make verification easier.
