Q400 loses wheel on landing
 

Incident: Colgan DH8D at Buffalo on May 12th 2009, lost wheel on landing
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By Simon Hradecky, created Wednesday, May 13th 2009 09:13Z, last updated Wednesday, May 13th 2009 09:13Z

A Colgan Air de Havilland Dash 8-400, registration N187WQ performing flight 9L-3268 from Newark,NJ to Buffalo,NY (USA), had landed on Buffalo's runway 23 and was taxiing to the ramp via taxiway Alpha, when the tower queried the crew, whether they had lost a tire. After an affirmative reply from the crew emergency services inspected the taxiway and decided to also have a look onto the runway, then reported that fluid, possibly from hydraulics, was on the runway and a whole wheel had been located with debris around the intersections of runway 23, runway 32 and taxiway Alpha. Both runways were closed, runway 32 reopened about 10 minutes later.






Come on guys whats going on?

Sounds like shady maintenance in securing the tires. At least it wasn't the engine that fell off.

Why would you taxi if you knew you lost a tire? It's never happened to me, but is that standard procedure? I would think you should stop and wait for assistance.

Their owned by Pinch-a-Nickel right?....guess that explains it. Spend a $1 to save a nickel.

I would suspect that they looked at their tires only after being queried by the tower. There is not "tire off" light in the cockpit. Having dual tires on each side, you may not know that you had lost a single tire.

I also wouldn't put my faith in the total accuracy of the news report itself.

So that's what's going on from this perspective. (Ditto on shoddy mx procedures as securing nut should be safety wired).

Depends on the AC. I never new any for the the Q400 but some AC have speed and turning limitations depending on how many tires are lost and from which gear assembly they were lost from.

I'm kind of surprised a passenger didn't flip out on this one. People are already on edge on "these little crop-dusters" as one man described a CR7 at DCA, and the Dash 8 has one of the best passenger views of the landing gear in aviation (MABYE a better view from the back seat of a 172 but I doubt it). I would figure whoever was sitting next to the tire would have freaked out and started yelling at the FAs and the message would be relayed before the tower figured it out but thats just my opinion.

Bad timing and location for this to happen. I am surprised the media has not ran with this story. Q400 operated by Colgan landing in Buffalo loses a wheel. Has all the points the media can use to sensationalize the "dangers" of regional airlines. Good for colgan this seems to be staying under the radar or this would just be another nail in the coffin.

not good press for Colgan. That's a bummer.

on a side note, and i dont know the timeline as to how long after turning off the runway the tower asked them, but shouldn't you take the initiative and tell the tower that a part of your airplane fell off and might be on an active runway as a safety/courtesy to the guy landing/taking off behind you??

Oh, just wait... First it'll be a Continental Boeing Dash 8 airplane lost a wheel after a hard landing due to fatigue and not being paid enough. It's coming just you wait... :rolleyes:

No it will come out to MX fatigue and they will reduce the MX workers duty day to 6 hours, with 2 days off between shifts.:rolleyes:

A Continental Airlines flight from Newark to Buffalo lost a wheel as it landed at the Buffalo Niagara International Airport on Tuesday night.

A spokesperson for the NFTA confirms the incident. He says flight 3268 landed safely. The pilot called for assistance to tow the plane to the gate. The tire was found in the grass, near the runway.

Colgan Airlines operates the Q400 Bombradier plane. The incident comes exactly three months after flight 3407 crashed in Clarence. The same type of plane was used for both flights.

Colgan Air has not commented on the incident.

Here's the link with pics. wgrz.com | Buffalo, NY | Continental Flight Loses Wheel

I bet Continental is stoked about all those Q400s they bought and that 10 year deal they signed with Colgan. Another smooth move brought to you by the operationally clueless management at Continental.:rolleyes:

Good photos, looks like one of the rampers over there may have made a few bucks.

If I were them with how much Colgan is in the media now Id be willing to bet that if they held out CNN or one of the big names may have paid a few bucks for that photo.

At least the gear didnt collapse. Baby steps for bombardier. First the gear folds, then you lose a wheel next step is maybe just a deflated strut.

Hard part is in the knowing. Can't see the landing gear from the cockpit in the megawhacker. And as a person said, with the dual tires you often won't feel it either.

The crew had no idea of any issues until taxiing to the gate they had an antiskid inop light and starting loosing hydraulic fluid from system 2. Then ATC notified them something was missing. They said landing and roll out was normal.

Just you wait Tommorow WSJ will report that if the crew had 25000 hrs of experiance each they would have noticed the wheel missing.....:eek: Man I hate the media right now

Do they in fact belong to CO or 9L?

I would love to see what the insurance premium is going to be for colgan and these q400's.

Someone filmed the wheel coming off!

http://www.torontosun.com/news/toron...4/9460296.html

they were bought by 9e for 9L :o:confused:

They have...And to make matters worse, a passenger actually video taped the entire thing.... See link below:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/30771870#30771870

Also, was some info on CNN as well.

Sparkie

It should not be that difficult to figure out something is wrong. I am a Dash 8 Mechanic, and a few clues.

1.) INBD ANTI SKID Light.
2.) Severe loss of Hydraulics
3.) After so much loss of fluid, they would have gone into ISO (ISOLATION) meaning that only rudder would have Hyd Power on the number 1 side.
4.) Loss of Hyd Pressure in number 1 system.

By looking at some of the other reports from other Colgan incidents, I think the company has some real issues. I am not sure if it is Maintenance, Training, Crews, or a combination of all of the above. But the way it looks, Flying Colgan with minimum wage flight crews, is like going to McDonalds for a Candle Light Dinner.

Just my opinion.

Sparkie