Next to the engines, the most complicated single system on retractable-gear aircraft is arguably the landing gear. Not only is it required to sustain huge static and dynamic loads, it must also be able to fold sufficiently to be tucked away in a compartment that would make anyone claustrophobic. Luckily, the landing gear is also one of the most reliable parts of an aircraft. This is as it should be since, as the saying goes, you can land an aircraft without its gear down… but only once.
Last Tuesday, the pilots of a LOT Polish Airlines Boeing 767 rose to the occasion and landed their 767 in Warsaw with the gear up following discovery of a hydraulic system failure that prevented the gear from being extended. After its long flight from Newark, the plane came to rest on its belly but still on the runway with nobody hurt. A bit of luck and great airmanship were in perfect harmony here.
The 767 has short “legs” meaning that the travel of the struts on landing is relatively short and so the damping is correspondingly hard. If you have flown in a 767, you will probably have noticed that it is rare indeed that she arrives back on terra firma in a landing that you would call a “greaser” in old air force parlance. But what the passengers experienced on this landing in Warsaw was the mother of all “hard landings”.
Of course an aircraft coming in to land without gears is something that makes hearts race not only on board but also in the air traffic control units handling the flight. Of them all, perhaps the tower is the most concerned. After all, they will witness in real time and with their own eyes how the landing turns out in the end.
I have memories of two such incidents from many years ago, both involving TU-134s operated by Malev Hungarian Airlines.
The first incident concerned uncertainty about the nose wheel being properly locked in its lowered position. At first it all looked like a normal approach until the pilot radioed the tower as they were descending on the ILS glide-slope that there was a problem with the landing gear and that they wanted to perform a missed approach and go into the holding to investigate. As they whistled over the runway climbing back into the sky, the landing gear appeared to be down but there was no way to ascertain that it was also locked in place. This was one of the older model TU-134s with the glass nose and we all thought of the navigator whose seat is down there in the nose… if the nose wheel folds when it touches down, his seat would be hot… literally.
As the 134 started endless circuits in the holding pattern we consulted the pilot about his fuel situation. The intention was to stop all other traffic the moment they sunk below the required reserve to make sure that they would have a runway to land on (we only had a single runway at Budapest back then). The last thing we wanted was another aircraft blocking the runway with a blown tire…
Time passed and the unruly nose gear was still refusing to play. Finally it was the moment of truth. The captain announced that they would come in and land anyway. The emergency services were already standing by and Approach Control set about vectoring the stricken plane towards runway 13. It were the same vectors, the same instructions that the controller had used a million times before but still, his voice was different… as if he and all of us were trying to featherbed the aircraft as it descended towards an uncertain end.
They were about two miles from the threshold when the navigator, who was also usually operating the radio, announced that he was leaving his station to ride out the final seconds of the drama in the passenger cabin. There was one question answered… From then on, the two pilots would handle things alone at least sure in the knowledge that their colleague would be relatively safe behind their backs.
The landing speed of the TU-134 was always a bit higher than that of more modern aircraft with lots of high-lift devices on the wing but this time she was coming in low and slow with the nose high up… She touched down and slowed, the nose still up… She released the braking parachute and slowed even more… the nose still up. Finally she lost her ability to be a bird and the nose gear came down ever so gently… and held as the plane stopped a few yards further down the runway. We clapped and telephoned Approach that all was well.
The second incident was also served up by an unruly 134. The captain was the husband of one of the ladies working in the flight plan processing office and this resulted in a bit of extra complication. When the flight crew discovered that there was a problem with the landing gear, Malev engineers asked them to make a low pass over the tower so that they could check the gear visually. Like in the previous case, here too the gear was down but there was uncertainty about its locked status. Approach control vectored the aircraft around so that its nose was pointed towards the tower and they were cleared to descend and approach visually… which they did. It was a spectacular sight as the graceful Tupolev flew towards the tower coming in really low. The engineers were on the roof of the tower and with binoculars in hand they tried to ascertain the status of the landing gear. In a few seconds the show was over and the 134 climbed back to a more usual altitude with her engine belching angry smoke.
The captain’s wife learned about her husband’s predicament and she ran up to the tower in a dead panic at the sight of the aircraft making its low pass. She arrived just when the engineers came down and said that they needed to have another look. She went pale and was shaking all over, poor thing, as the controllers discussed the plan with the pilot… her husband. She begged to be allowed to stay there and she was told to stand back and just keep quiet.
On the second pass, the 134 came in even lower and they flew a little to the right of the tower instead of coming in right overhead. As they approached, the pilot banked her to the right, showing the belly of the plane and the gear to the engineers and the controller staring at this incredible sight. Time seemed to stop and the twinjet appeared to hang there for several seconds before she roared back up into her element.
The engineers were satisfied that there would be no problem with the gear and indeed she landed safely a few minutes later.
I can only imagine what the controllers in Warsaw tower felt when the 767 was coming in with its gear up, sinking nearer and nearer to the concrete… Like we back then, they were probably mentally featherbedding the runway and reaching out to help in keeping the plane safe.
That is why we are there after all!