No malfunction in belly landing

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This article was published 15/01/2010 (5923 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

FEDERAL air crash investigators have determined there were no equipment malfunctions in a plane which skidded down the runway at Bloodvein First Nation on its belly without its landing gear down last week.

Peter Hildebrand, regional manager for the Transportation Safety Board, said the Superior Airways Piper Navajo Chieftain was equipped with a device to warn the pilot the landing gear wasn’t down, but it didn’t come on.

The landing gear was working properly, but was not engaged, Hildebrand said.

“If you bump the power up you won’t get the warning until you retard the power,” Hildebrand said.

“The approach was with fair power to the engine… We don’t say pilot error, but we won’t say there was an equipment malfunction.”

Hildebrand said because that was the cause of the incident the TSB has closed its books on it and won’t investigate further.

Nine adults and four infants were flying on a charter flight from Pikangikum, Ont., to a church gathering in Bloodvein when the plane landed on its belly on Jan. 8 at about 4:30 p.m. No one was injured

Superior Airways president Mike Misurka said on Wednesday the pilot of the plane is still suspended from flying.

Misurka said the plane will be repaired and will probably by flying again in about a month.

“I think about (putting down landing gear) everytime I do it,” he said.

“Unfortunately, it reflects badly on the company… I would always have the landing gear down much earlier.”

Misurka confirmed the plane has a factory-installed alarm to warn a pilot that he or she hasn’t put down the landing gear, but it was the only plane in its fleet that hadn’t installed another alarm which would be controlled by altitude instead of the throttle.

Meanwhile, the TSB has determined that serious damage to an air ambulance, whose landing gear collapsed while landing at Richardson International Airport on Dec. 23, was caused by the co-pilot pulling the wrong lever.

The SkyNorth Air plane was landing at about 2:30 a.m., with three crew members and a patient when the landing gear collapsed. The mishap caused another plane to be diverted to another runway to land.

Hildebrand said the co-pilot meant to pull the lever controlling the aircraft’s flaps, but instead “the landing gear was selected after the plane touched down.” Hildebrand said the plane was equipped with a safety device to prevent that from happening, but it doesn’t work until more of the plane’s weight touches down on the runway.

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca