Ground crew inexperience partly to blame for Qantas ‘wheels down’ flight

An investigation into a Qantas ‘wheels down’ flight that was forced to return has found a series of checks missed two locking pins in the landing gear.

A Qantas Boeing 787 takes off from Sydney Airport. Picture: David Gray/Getty Images

An investigation into a Qantas flight that took off with the locking pins in the main landing gear has found workforce restructuring contributed to the oversight.

The pilots of the Boeing 787 realised there was a problem when they took off from Sydney Airport on June 21 to fly five hours to Perth, and could not retract the wheels.

Within 45 minutes of takeoff, the flight returned to Sydney where engineers discovered two of the five locking pins were still in place.

Qantas says there was no issue with the safety of the flight and passengers were back on their way to Perth within two hours.

Aircraft can operate safely with the landing gear down but the fuel burn is increased.

Normally pre-flight inspections by engineers and the flight crew would ensure the removal of all pins which are fitted with red streamers printed with the words “remove before flight” to aid in identification.

The pins are inserted when aircraft are on the ground at airports to prevent any inadvertent collapse of the landing gear.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau’s final report on the incident found external inspections of the 787 were carried out by engineers and a relief pilot, but all missed the two remaining pins left by an inexperienced ground crew.

The report said workplace restructuring by Qantas during the Covid pandemic, had meant some engineers were transitioned to new roles working on different aircraft.

“Only one of the Qantas ground crew that spoke with the ATSB, advised they were aware that the 787 had five gear pins,” the ATSB report said.

“In addition, it was the first time towing a 787 for all the ground crew except the 787 licensed aircraft maintenance engineer.”

The ATSB investigation found the pins that were removed were placed in a stowage locker, which was out of the line of sight from a ladder.

A landing gear pin in place with streamer attached, and those removed from the aircraft. Picture: ATSB

When the engineer checked the locker and felt for the pins, they were satisfied all had been accounted for and signed for their removal and stowage on a technical log.

The flight crew reviewed the log, and a relief pilot performed the external pre-flight inspection but failed to notice the presence of the two pins still in place.

Qantas executive manager of group engineering Scott McConnell said the oversight should never have happened.

“In aviation it’s critical that the correct procedures are followed at all times,” he said.

“This should have been picked up by the multiple layers of checks that we have in place.”

Mr McConnell said since the incident in June, Qantas had strengthened its training for engineers, pilots and ground crew to ensure there was greater awareness of the correct procedures.

“We are also moving the gear pin storage systems on our B787 aircraft so they are more accessible and have checked all gear-pin streamers across the 787 fleet and replaced any that required it,” Mr McConnell said.

The ATSB report surmised that it was possible the two locking pins were missed because the streamers had become wet in the rain and stuck to the landing gear.

Originally published as Ground crew inexperience partly to blame for Qantas ‘wheels down’ flight