Lakes Bro on its belly in DEN
 

Anybody see the Great lakes Brasilia on its belly on the ramp in DEN yesterday? Im just curious how does something like that happen? Are there not squat switches to prevent such a thing, of course im sure there was some sort of malfunction with them. Anybody that knows, care to explain the details?

What's this little lever do ?

:eek:

My guess is the squat switch was deferred.

Landing gear was repossessed. Guess these are tough times even for the prop jobs.

You know the gear is up and locked when it takes full power to taxi to the gate.

Don't know about the Bro, but there is a WoW override button for the gear handle on the Saab. I've had to use it once before when the gear handle solenoid lock failed to disengage after takeoff. It'll work on the ground as well (equals a bad day if you're trying to prove it won't allow the gear to come up on the ground).

Rumor I heard was mx was working on the airplane and left the gear handle up after working on it. The FO came in and fired up the APU and hydraulics and bam, the gear retracted. It's been a while since I had anything to do with an Embraer, but if I remember the ERJ correctly, and the Bro is anything like it, the WoW switches cause a j-hook to physically prevent the gear handle from being moved up while on the ground. This j-hook can be overridden with a button next to the gear handle in case there is some sort of malfunction with the system. Once overridden, the handle can be moved and still actuates the gear retraction. From what I can remember, that is all that prevents the gear from being retracted on the ground. Somebody please correct me if I'm wrong.

Here's a couple pics I took last night. Sorry for the crappy quality, my cell phone sucks.

http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w...1/SSPX0383.jpg

http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w...1/SSPX0382.jpg

That's a relief. I was afraid it had something to do with fatigue...

bet you get a new item to the APU start checklist. Something like varify Mx didnt leave the gear handle up....:D That sucks we are all capable of an embarrasing mistake, although this one decidedly is pretty big...

In all honesty though I doubt it did much actual damage to the plane, more embarrasing then anything, thank God no one was near it though when it went.