Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION
Tire problem factor in plane's belly landing
Gear deployment wasn't possible
(SUPPLIED)
City firefighters at the scene of the Perimeter Aviation plane’s belly landing at Richardson International Airport March 3. (MIKE DEAL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS ARCHIVES)
PUT a tire that's too wide on your car, and you'll find it won't stay on the rim -- but if you try the same thing with an airplane's wheel, you might have to make a pancake landing on a runway.
That's part of what federal aviation crash experts have determined happened to a Perimeter Aviation plane earlier this year when its landing gear failed to come down and the two pilots were forced to make a belly landing at Winnipeg's Richardson International Airport on March 3.
The two crew and eight passengers on board, en route from St. Theresa Point to Winnipeg, walked off the plane with no injuries, but were taken to hospital as a precaution.
Peter Hildebrand, regional manager of the Transportation Safety Board of Canada, said on Friday the twin-engine Metro II plane's right landing gear door didn't open all the way because the tire was about a centimetre too wide, causing it to hook up on the gear door's raised ledge.
Hildebrand said not only was there a problem with the ledge, but the gear door was also installed incorrectly.
"The landing-gear doors aren't like your car's door, which is installed at a factory and goes years without change," Hildebrand said.
"Landing doors are subject to vibration (and) high speed and they're out in the cold and heat. They have stress and they're always in a state of flux.
"And then you put on a newly recapped tire. It (the doors) would work with the original tire, but when you put one on a bit larger, it changes things."
Hildebrand said it all culminated in the pilots not being able to put down their right landing gear.
Hildebrand said the plane was manufactured in 1976 by the Fairchild Aircraft Corp. He said the landing gear door on later Metro IIs were designed without the ledge, which on the earlier models were there to give the door more strength.
And Hildebrand said in the wake of the pancake landing, the manufacturer reissued its 1984 notice on tire-size information for airlines flying the aircraft.
Mark Wehrle, Perimeter's general manager, said they've already designed a new device to ensure the tire's width is the right size before it is put on a plane.
But, Wehrle said "tires tend to grow from the heat and the centrifugal force.
"And it's a tight fit there. The original aircraft had much smaller tires, but then they put in larger tires... and the manufacturer's specifications change over the years."
Wehrle said the company is also looking at redesigning the landing gear doors.
Wehrle said the plane was damaged on its belly, flaps and propellers, but it has been repaired and put back into service.
"The damage was very minimal," he said, noting it cost less than $30,000 to fix.
"Our pilots did a great job of setting it down fairly gently."
kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition November 7, 2009 A3
- Rate this
-
-
We want you to tell us what you think of our articles. If the story moves you, compels you to act or tells you something you didn’t know, mark it high. If you thought it was well written, do the same. If it doesn’t meet your standards, mark it accordingly.
You can also register and/or login to the site and join the conversation by leaving a comment.
Rate it yourself by rolling over the stars and clicking when you reach your desired rating. We want you to tell us what you think of our articles. If the story moves you, compels you to act or tells you something you didn’t know, mark it high.
The comment period for this story has ended.
Ads by Google
- Back to Top
- Return to Local
-
Working in Winnipeg
A close-up look at the jobs people do and why they do them
-
Helping Haiti
Where to make donations
-
Open Secrets
Red River students mine government data banks
-
Ski with WFP
Register here to ski Asessippi with the Winnipeg Free Press
-
Random Acts of Kindness
Your encounters with goodness
Poll
Most Popular
- No peace for dead girl's mom
- Murder charges against top CFB Trenton officer leave military community reeling
- Falls from operating table prompt new procedures at hospitals
- Bombers sue over cancelled Aerosmith concert
- Should have been listening, Tiger
- No support for Winnipeg's 'Homeless Hero' in days before attack: stepdaughter
- Checking out sex show all part of journalist's job
- Body found in Delta airplane wheel well after arriving in Tokyo from New York
- Larger garbage carts may become available
- Little boy left cold, crying outside locked daycare
- Little boy left cold, crying outside locked daycare
- Woman arrested in Faron Hall beating
- Pilot burnt plane as signal before walking to shore
- Storm warning issued
- Built-in text messages ruined life, says city man
- LaPolice named as Bomber head coach
- City streets very slippery; several vehicles involved in crashes
- 26 cats too many, woman told
- Car stolen at gunpoint recovered
- No peace for dead girl's mom
- Guns N' Roses show a massive rock 'n' roll spectacle
- Extended family pulls together
- Two dead after crash on Bishop Grandin
- Water pressure drop caused by power outage: city
- Avoid Perimeter: RCMP
- Little boy left cold, crying outside locked daycare
- Winter storm warnings issued for Winnipeg, southern Manitoba
- Woman arrested in Faron Hall beating
- Pilot burnt plane as signal before walking to shore
- Cheap Vancouver rentals, if tiny's OK
- Larger garbage carts may become available
- No peace for dead girl's mom
- Take one downtown, fill it with people
- No support for Winnipeg's 'Homeless Hero' in days before attack: stepdaughter
- Got more trash? It'll cost you
- MPI playing politics with poll question: Tories
- Bombers sue over cancelled Aerosmith concert
- Murder charges against top CFB Trenton officer leave military community reeling
- Brian Sinclair's family should get more money for lawyer
- Councillors nix oversized rolling garbage bins
- 300 pounds of marijuana found in semi
- Little boy left cold, crying outside locked daycare
- LaPolice named as Bomber head coach
- Sick days spike during blizzard
- Woman arrested in Faron Hall beating
- 26 cats too many, woman told
- Car stolen at gunpoint recovered
- Shielding buyers, or 'cash grab'?
- Bad cocaine results in grave illness, hospitalization
- Built-in text messages ruined life, says city man
- 300 pounds of marijuana found in semi
- Girl not a bully, shouldn't have been suspended, says mom
- Arrest tape kills auto-theft case
- Little boy left cold, crying outside locked daycare
- Don't dock students for missing deadlines: NDP
- Alleged mobsters seek to stay
- RCMP investigating after video shows police beating suspect
- U.S. fighter slams Canada's 'Third World' health system
- LaPolice named as Bomber head coach
- Drunk cop crashes motorbike, gets fined
- Site for parents' sore eyes
- Iran playing its hand
- Checking out sex show all part of journalist's job
- Falls from operating table prompt new procedures at hospitals
- First female boss for Destination Winnipeg
- Happy 111th birthday to oldest Manitoban
- No peace for dead girl's mom
- Steamy weekend
- Real-estate association's rules challenged by federal competition watchdog
- Footprints in snow lead to stolen goods
- Little boy left cold, crying outside locked daycare
- LaPolice named as Bomber head coach
- Cat came back: 14 years later
- 26 cats too many, woman told
- A super-lab to fight superbugs
- Hutterite biography to debut despite legal chill
- Pilot burnt plane as signal before walking to shore
- Built-in text messages ruined life, says city man
- Happy 111th birthday to oldest Manitoban
- Site for parents' sore eyes
- 'Tough guys' wanted as film extras
- Nylons still smooth as silk
- Bath & Body Works coming to St. Vital
- Cat came back: 14 years later
- Little boy left cold, crying outside locked daycare
- Guns N' Roses show a massive rock 'n' roll spectacle
- Winnipeg desserts are a piece of cake
- LaPolice named as Bomber head coach
- VIDEO: A winter wonderland?
- Harper really is dangerous
PREVIOUS
3 Comments
Posted by: Robert Brise
November 7, 2009 at 7:11 PM
Wrong tire will pop off the rim!!!
Dumbest comment I have heard in quite a while !!
You can drive with all 4 tires being different sizes on a car and let me assure you you won't have to make a belly landing!!!!!!
Posted by: AgentFrank
November 7, 2009 at 4:33 PM
The unfortunate unknown is how weather or wind might effect operation at a later date. A cross wind could cause a door to deflect a few milimeters, and that would be all it would take in this situation. However I do agree, Good enough isn't !
Posted by: morebs
November 7, 2009 at 9:03 AM
...simple enough to operate the device a couple of times after repair to at least see that it "looked" to be operating OK [i.e. not binding]... Sounds like Wherle and Hildebrand are blaming it on some mysterious, unavoidable force, or "gremlin." Doesn't do much to inspire confidence! When and where will the gremliln strike next?