Qantas ‘wheels down’ flight under investigation

An investigation is underway into a Qantas flight which took off from Sydney with the landing gear pins still in place.

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

An investigation is underway into why a Qantas 787 took off with the locking pins still in the main landing gear, which meant the pilots were unable to retract the wheels.

The incident happened on June 21 at Sydney Airport, as the aeroplane took off for a five-hour flight to Perth.

According to the Australian Transport Safety Bureau, the aircrew realised there was a problem when they could not retract the main landing gear and received a “gear disagree” message.

Within 45-minutes of takeoff, the crew returned to Sydney for an uneventful landing and engineers inspected the Boeing 787-9.

“The engineering inspection revealed that the forward gear pins on the left and right main landing gear were not removed prior to the flight,” said the ATSB investigation summary.

Normally pre-flight inspections by engineers and the captain would ensure the gear pins were removed.

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

Although Qantas denied there was ever any threat to safety, a spokesman said the incident was

being taken seriously.

“There are checks to in place to ensure these locking pins are removed before each flight and we’re looking into why this did not occur on this occasion,” said the spokesman.

“There was no issue with the safety of the flight.”

Passengers were held up for only a short time, with another aircraft carrying them to Perth about two hours later.

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

A Qantas A380 being stored in California recently flew the short distance from Victorville to Los Angeles with the wheels down for maintenance reasons.

The ATSB said the evidence collection phase of the investigation would include a review and examination of maintenance records and the gathering of any other relevant evidence.

A final report was expected by the end of March next year.

The bureau is continuing to investigate why a Malaysia Airlines’ A330 took off from Brisbane Airport on July 18, 2018, with the Pitot tube covers in place, in what amounted to a serious risk to safety.

Originally published as Qantas ‘wheels down’ flight under investigation