Today a Batik Air Airbus A320-200 made an emergency landing at Sultan Thaha Jambi Airport, Indonesia, after the nose landing gear (NLG) rotated 90 degrees sideways.
According to the AvHerald, the 4 year old aircraft, with registration PK-LUT and performing flight ID-6803 from Jambi to Jakarta (Indonesia), was in its initial climb out of runway 31 when the crew stopped the climb at 3000 feet due to problems with the nose gear.
“After take-off, the pilot decided to return to the airport of departure (return to base / RTB) because there is an indicator in the cockpit (which notifies or shows), that there may be a technical problem (technical reason). Batik Air apologizes for the inconvenience that has arisen so that the flight of ID-6803 guests was disturbed. Batik Air has provided a compensation service for delay of departure (delay management) based on applicable regulations.”
Communication between Corporate Communications Strategic of Batik Air , Danang Mandala Prihantoro to detik.com
The aircraft returned to Jambi and landed 25 minutes after departure, it came to a stop on the runway with the damaged nose gear turned 90 degrees sideways. In the below image you can see fire, sparks and smoke all coming from the nose gear. The 117 passengers and 6 crew disembarked safely onto the runway via stairs.
“Yes, the Batik Air flight had experienced an RTB ( return to base ) and an emergency landing at Sultan Thaha Jambi Airport. From this incident, there are 3 affected flights cancelled (cancelled), namely Lion Air, Batik Air and Citilink, all of which are destined for Jakarta (CGK).”
From a written statement by Executive General Manager of Sultan Thaha Jambi Airport, Indra Gunawan and received by detik.com
It is not the first time that the Airbus A320 family has suffered this type of incident. On September 21st 2005 a Jet Blue flight, 292 from Bob Hope Airport in Burbank, California to NY John F. Kennedy International Airport, executed an emergency landing at Los Angeles International Airport, after the nose gear jammed in a 90 degree position.
What is wrong with those pilots? They should have turned the main gear 90 degrees, slipped to land sideways, and called it a day.
A number of Corrective actions and retrofits were issued after the jetblue incident.
https://www.ntsb.gov/about/employment/_layouts/ntsb.aviation/brief2.aspx?ev_id=20050927X01540&ntsbno=LAX05IA312&akey=1
Dismissing the possibility that the Captain’s hand inadvertently nudged the Nosewheel steering tiller/wheel, I am surprised/concerned that Airbus seemingly did not find a ‘fix’ or solution to this problem in the intervening 15 years since the JetBlue incident.
I would have thought that it lies within the castoring mechanism, or lack of. Might it be that stiffening the self-centering gimbals, or ‘tweaking’ whatever system is fitted could have prevented this further, embarrassing (for Airbus and Batik Air)?
When this happened to Jet Blue, I read it happened 6 times already.
Nice to see a responsive Airbus team jumped right on this little problem in 2005 to insure it would not happen again, eh?
What were the findings of the JetBlue incident n has Airbus perhaps recommend some corrective action ?
Wow! Did not think this would happen again after the JetBlue incident.