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Message: <blockquote data-quote="rith" data-source="post: 2096395" data-attributes="member: 21277">COLOR="Blue"]Two hours before flight, Air India aircraft's nose wheel gear collapses Express News ServicePosted online: Saturday, May 17, 2008 at 0325 hrs IST Ground engineer under belly has narrow miss as engineer in cockpit putsfront wheel lever into retract position; both engineers suspended;leased aircraft was to depart for Dubai . The nose wheel gear of a Dubai-bound Air India Boeing 777 collapsedtoday around 1.30 pm, two hours before it was bound to take off, thesecond incident involving the airline's aircraft in two days at theChhatrapati Shivaji International Airport . An engineer carrying outmaintenance work under the aircraft's belly had a narrow escape. The incident occurred when the aircraft was still in the maintenancearea, at Bay 48. "It's a leased aircraft and not owned by Air India ,"said an Air India spokesperson. "Prima facie, the nose gear seems tohave collapsed but the plane was still in the maintenance area whiledesignated to fly to Dubai ." He said nobody was injured in the incident. On Thursday, the door of an Airbus A-320 was damaged after thestill-attached aerobridge slammed against it as the pushback vehicle atthe rear wheels began to move. The passengers had already boarded. It is standard procedure for engineers to carry out maintenance tests ona departing plane. Sources said the plane's landing lever, knowntechnically as a retraction lever, was put into the 'retract' positionforcing the front wheel of the plane to collapse while it was stillstanding. The landing lever is put into this position once the aircrafthits airspace, allowing the wheels of the plane to retract into theaircraft. "Prima facie, it appears to be a case of human error as the groundengineer should have fixed the nose pin on top of the front wheel beforetesting the landing lever," said an air safety expert, not wishing to benamed. The nose pin is a thick titanium pin that fixed on top of thefront wheel of the aircraft so that even when the lever is 'retracted',the front wheel cannot collapse. While an aircraft engineer named Panchal was testing the plane from thecockpit, it was ground engineer Manoj Nair , under its belly, whoreportedly saw the plane vibrating violently. He escaped unhurt,narrowly. The Dubai-bound plane, the AI 717, is a Boeing 777 and amongthe new aircraft in Air India 's stable, leased from the United Airlines. The airline spokesperson said that while human error could not be ruledout, the two engineers concerned have been suspended pending an inquiry.He also refuted charges of the aircraft had vibrated before its nosecollapsed, saying no aircraft can vibrate when its engine is switchedoff. "While nothing can be said before investigations are completed as youhave to carefully go through every minute detail. However, you cannotignore the fact that it is a very serious incident - there is no doubtabout that," said senior civil aviation advisor and a former Director ofCivil Aviation, H.S Khola .[/COLOR]<img src="http://img53.imageshack.us/img53/3554/dsc01359yr9.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /><img src="http://img233.imageshack.us/img233/8708/dsc01362hi7.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /><img src="http://img411.imageshack.us/img411/921/dsc01365co8.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /><img src="http://img411.imageshack.us/img411/9892/dsc01366vq9.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></blockquote>

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