A WestJet Boeing 737-800 that suffered a gear collapse two weeks ago in Sint Maarten is back on its wheels, and the airline is apparently intent on flying it out of the Caribbean country. The Canadian Press reported last week that the airline intended to fix the plane, which appeared to have suffered major damage in the runway incident, which resulted in an emergency slide evacuation. WestJet said repairs started as soon as the plane was released by investigators but no timeline for the job was announced.
Shortly after the incident on Sept. 7 pictures emerged online showing the gear structure piercing the upper wing panels, suggesting something big let loose in the most structurally important area of the plane. The damage was caused by a firm arrival at the notoriously gusty airport, but what actually failed has not been publicly discussed. The incident closed the busy airport for a day as crews moved the plane from the runway. They ended up supporting the right wing of the plane on a flatbed truck to get it rolling to a ramp area.
Get serious– remove the wings and barge it out.
As bad as this sounds, there have been far worse situations of aircraft damaged at an outlying location and of them being returned to flight.
The following occurred to an airplane that was actually intended to go to its first customer. During an min distance landing test for certification, the airplane’s tail was structurally damaged at a bulkhead and fell off. The Company set up a remote work site and reassembled the airplane at Edwards AFB. BTW: The test was repeated on another airframe at Yuma, AZ and that airplane suffered a similar fate.
Per “AI:”
‘On May 2, 1980, a McDonnell Douglas DC-9-81 (MD-81) lost its tail section during a hard landing test flight at Edwards Air Force Base. The aircraft was substantially damaged, but its crew members survived with only one serious injury.
Details of the DC-9-81 crash
Purpose of the test: The aircraft, with the registration N980DC, was undergoing a flight test for certification. The goal was to demonstrate the minimum horizontal distance required to land and stop the aircraft.
Accident summary: The crew executed a landing with an excessive rate of descent that exceeded the DC-9-81’s structural limits.
The aircraft touched down hard on Runway 22 at a descent rate of 16.5 feet per second.
The empennage (tail section) separated from the fuselage and the main fuselage buckled in several places.
The aircraft continued along the runway before the left main landing gear collapsed.
The aircraft slid to a stop, with the crew unaware they had lost the tail until they powered down the aircraft.
Crew and injuries: Seven crew members were on board, including a mixed crew from McDonnell Douglas and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). An FAA Flight Test Engineer standing in the cockpit broke his ankle.
Aftermath and contributing factors:
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) determined that the probable cause was the pilot’s failure to stabilize the approach according to the manufacturer’s procedures.
A contributing factor was that manufacturer procedures did not require crews to call out critical flight parameters.
Remarkably, the aircraft was repaired and later used as an unducted fan demonstrator. ‘
(The customer who owned this test aircraft refused to accept it; so the airplane was used for other purposes and they received a new airplane)
It will be ferried stiff legged to an MRO and back on the line soon.
Guessing it will have some “unique” trim settings and one side of window seats will have a nice forward view (extra cost seat upgrade?)…not to mention some new and longer cracks within the load structure that took the transferred overload.