JetBlue Airways Flight 292
Encyclopedia
JetBlue Airways
Flight 292 was a scheduled flight from Bob Hope Airport
(BUR) in Burbank, California
to John F. Kennedy International Airport
(JFK) in New York City
. On September 21, 2005, flight 292 executed an emergency landing
at Los Angeles International Airport
(LAX) after the nose wheels
jammed in an abnormal position. No one was injured.
aircraft departed from Burbank at 3:17 pm PDT (UTC
-7). The aircraft, which was built in 2002, bore the tail number
and the name "Canyon Blue". It was scheduled to fly 2,465 miles (3,967 km) to JFK airport.
After takeoff from Burbank, the pilots realized that they could not retract the landing gear. They then flew low over Long Beach Municipal Airport
(LGB) in Long Beach
(the location of a JetBlue hub) to allow officials in the airport's control tower
to take stock of the damage to its landing gear before attempting a landing. It was found that the nosewheel was rotated ninety degrees to the left, perpendicular to the direction of the fuselage.
Rather than land at Long Beach Airport, the pilot-in-command took the decision that the aircraft would land at Los Angeles International Airport
(LAX), in order to take advantage of its long, wide runways and modern safety equipment.
The pilots flew the aircraft, which can carry up to 46,860 pounds (21,255 kg) of aviation fuel
, in a figure eight pattern between Bob Hope Airport in Burbank and LAX for more than two hours in order to burn fuel and lower the risk of fire upon landing. This also served to lighten the plane, reducing potential stress on the landing gear and dramatically lowering landing speed as well. The Airbus A320 does not have the mechanical facility to dump fuel
, despite various news agencies reporting that the aircraft was doing so over the ocean.
Since JetBlue planes are equipped with DirecTV
satellite television
, passengers on Flight 292 were able to watch live news coverage of their flight while the plane circled over the Pacific for hours. The in-flight video system was turned off "well before landing".
Emergency services and fire engines were standing by on the LAX tarmac
ahead of the landing. Although foam
trucks were available, they were not used. The U.S. FAA no longer recommends pre-foaming
runways, chiefly due to concerns that it would deplete firefighting foam supplies which might later be needed to respond to a fire; it is also difficult to determine exactly where a runway should be foamed, and pre-foaming might also reduce the effectiveness of the aircraft's brakes, potentially causing it to slide off the runway.
Los Angeles Fire Dept. Battalion Chief Lou Roupoli said, "The pilot did an outstanding job. He kept the plane on its rear tires as long as he could before he brought [the nose gear down]." When the nose gear did touch down, there were sparks and flames from it, but no apparent damage to the rest of the plane. At 6:20pm PDT (UTC
-7), the aircraft came to a stop very close to the end of the 11,096-foot (3382-meter) runway 25L. In an attempt to keep the nose gear off the ground as long as possible, reverse thrust was not used to slow the aircraft. The pilots therefore used a much larger portion of the available runway than in a typical landing, stopping 1,000 feet / 305 m before the end of the runway, validating the decision to divert from Long Beach, where the longest runway is 10,000 feet (3048 m).
s, as opposed to Evacuation Slides typically used in an emergency situation.
As JetBlue did not operate from LAX at the time, the aircraft was towed to a Continental Airlines
hangar at LAX for evaluation.
Expert opinion expressed was that, despite the drama and live worldwide coverage, there was little real danger to the passengers or crew of Flight 292. The A320, like all modern airliners, is engineered to tolerate certain failures, and if necessary can be landed without the nose gear at all.
A similar incident with an A320 occurred on an America West Airlines
flight in February 1999 in Columbus, Ohio
(Flight 2811). The NTSB found the cause was a failure of the external o-rings in the nose landing gear steering module." That plane also landed safely.
The media reported that this was at least the seventh occurrence of an Airbus A320 series aircraft touching down with the landing gear locked ninety degrees out of position, and one of at least sixty-seven "nose wheel failures" on A319, A320 and A321 aircraft worldwide since 1989. Earlier incidents included another JetBlue flight bound for New York City
, a United Airlines
flight into Chicago
, and the America West flight into Columbus, Ohio
. While some incidents were traced to faulty maintenance and denied as a design flaw by Airbus Industries, the manufacturer had issued maintenance advisories to A320 owners which were later mandated as Airworthiness Directive
s by American and French aviation authorities. Messier-Dowty
, which manufactures nose gear assemblies for the A320, stated in a National Transportation Safety Board
(NTSB) report in 2004 that part of the gear had been redesigned to prevent future problems, but at the time the redesign was awaiting approval. Mechanics familiar with this common fault usually replace or re-program the Brake Steering Control Unit (BSCU) computer.
The NTSB report says that worn-out seals were to blame for the malfunction. Also the brake steering control unit system contributed to the problem. Airbus claims to have fixed the problem in an upgrade.
Following the incident, the aircraft was repaired and returned to service still bearing the name "Canyon Blue." JetBlue no longer uses Flight 292 on its Burbank-JFK route; the flight route designation for JetBlue's flights between Burbank and New York are now Flights 350 and 358.
JetBlue Airways
JetBlue Airways Corporation is an American low-cost airline. The company is headquartered in the Forest Hills neighborhood of the New York City borough of Queens. Its main base is John F. Kennedy International Airport, also in Queens....
Flight 292 was a scheduled flight from Bob Hope Airport
Bob Hope Airport
Bob Hope Airport is a public airport located 3 miles northwest of the central business district of Burbank, a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States...
(BUR) in Burbank, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
to John F. Kennedy International Airport
John F. Kennedy International Airport
John F. Kennedy International Airport is an international airport located in the borough of Queens in New York City, about southeast of Lower Manhattan. It is the busiest international air passenger gateway to the United States, handling more international traffic than any other airport in North...
(JFK) in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. On September 21, 2005, flight 292 executed an emergency landing
Emergency landing
An emergency landing is a landing made by an aircraft in response to a crisis which either interferes with the operation of the aircraft or involves sudden medical emergencies necessitating diversion to the nearest airport.-Types of emergency landings:...
at Los Angeles International Airport
Los Angeles International Airport
Los Angeles International Airport is the primary airport serving the Greater Los Angeles Area, the second-most populated metropolitan area in the United States. It is most often referred to by its IATA airport code LAX, with the letters pronounced individually...
(LAX) after the nose wheels
Undercarriage
The undercarriage or landing gear in aviation, is the structure that supports an aircraft on the ground and allows it to taxi, takeoff and land...
jammed in an abnormal position. No one was injured.
September 21, 2005 flight
Carrying 140 passengers and six crew, the Airbus A320-232Airbus A320
The Airbus A320 family is a family of short- to medium-range, narrow-body, commercial passenger jet airliners manufactured by Airbus Industrie.Airbus was originally a consortium of European aerospace companies, and is now fully owned by EADS. Airbus's name has been Airbus SAS since 2001...
aircraft departed from Burbank at 3:17 pm PDT (UTC
Coordinated Universal Time
Coordinated Universal Time is the primary time standard by which the world regulates clocks and time. It is one of several closely related successors to Greenwich Mean Time. Computer servers, online services and other entities that rely on having a universally accepted time use UTC for that purpose...
-7). The aircraft, which was built in 2002, bore the tail number
Aircraft registration
An aircraft registration is a unique alphanumeric string that identifies a civil aircraft, in similar fashion to a licence plate on an automobile...
and the name "Canyon Blue". It was scheduled to fly 2,465 miles (3,967 km) to JFK airport.
After takeoff from Burbank, the pilots realized that they could not retract the landing gear. They then flew low over Long Beach Municipal Airport
Long Beach Municipal Airport
Long Beach Airport , also known as Daugherty Field, is a city-owned public-use airport located three nautical miles northeast of the central business district of the City of Long Beach, in Los Angeles County, California, United States. It serves Los Angeles and Orange Counties...
(LGB) in Long Beach
Long Beach, California
Long Beach is a city situated in Los Angeles County in Southern California, on the Pacific coast of the United States. The city is the 36th-largest city in the nation and the seventh-largest in California. As of 2010, its population was 462,257...
(the location of a JetBlue hub) to allow officials in the airport's control tower
Control tower
A control tower, or more specifically an Air Traffic Control Tower , is the name of the airport building from which the air traffic control unit controls the movement of aircraft on and around the airport. Control towers are also used to control the traffic for other forms of transportation such...
to take stock of the damage to its landing gear before attempting a landing. It was found that the nosewheel was rotated ninety degrees to the left, perpendicular to the direction of the fuselage.
Rather than land at Long Beach Airport, the pilot-in-command took the decision that the aircraft would land at Los Angeles International Airport
Los Angeles International Airport
Los Angeles International Airport is the primary airport serving the Greater Los Angeles Area, the second-most populated metropolitan area in the United States. It is most often referred to by its IATA airport code LAX, with the letters pronounced individually...
(LAX), in order to take advantage of its long, wide runways and modern safety equipment.
The pilots flew the aircraft, which can carry up to 46,860 pounds (21,255 kg) of aviation fuel
Aviation fuel
Aviation fuel is a specialized type of petroleum-based fuel used to power aircraft. It is generally of a higher quality than fuels used in less critical applications, such as heating or road transport, and often contains additives to reduce the risk of icing or explosion due to high temperatures,...
, in a figure eight pattern between Bob Hope Airport in Burbank and LAX for more than two hours in order to burn fuel and lower the risk of fire upon landing. This also served to lighten the plane, reducing potential stress on the landing gear and dramatically lowering landing speed as well. The Airbus A320 does not have the mechanical facility to dump fuel
Fuel dumping
Fuel dumping is a procedure used by aircraft in certain emergency situations before a return to the airport shortly after takeoff, or before landing short of its intended destination to lighten the aircraft's weight.-Aircraft fuel dump:Aircraft have two major types of weight limits: the maximum ...
, despite various news agencies reporting that the aircraft was doing so over the ocean.
Since JetBlue planes are equipped with DirecTV
DirecTV
DirecTV is an American direct broadcast satellite service provider and broadcaster based in El Segundo, California. Its satellite service, launched on June 17, 1994, transmits digital satellite television and audio to households in the United States, Latin America, and the Anglophone Caribbean. ...
satellite television
Satellite television
Satellite television is television programming delivered by the means of communications satellite and received by an outdoor antenna, usually a parabolic mirror generally referred to as a satellite dish, and as far as household usage is concerned, a satellite receiver either in the form of an...
, passengers on Flight 292 were able to watch live news coverage of their flight while the plane circled over the Pacific for hours. The in-flight video system was turned off "well before landing".
Emergency services and fire engines were standing by on the LAX tarmac
Tarmac
Tarmac is a type of road surface. Tarmac refers to a material patented by Edgar Purnell Hooley in 1901...
ahead of the landing. Although foam
Fire retardant foam
Fire-fighting foam is a foam used for fire suppression. Its role is to cool the fire and to coat the fuel, preventing its contact with oxygen, resulting in suppression of the combustion. Fire-fighting foam was invented by the Russian engineer and chemist Aleksandr Loran in 1902.The surfactants used...
trucks were available, they were not used. The U.S. FAA no longer recommends pre-foaming
Foam path
A foam path is the aviation safety practice of spreading a layer of fire suppression foam on an airport runway prior to an emergency landing. Originally, it was thought this would prevent fires, but the practice is now discouraged....
runways, chiefly due to concerns that it would deplete firefighting foam supplies which might later be needed to respond to a fire; it is also difficult to determine exactly where a runway should be foamed, and pre-foaming might also reduce the effectiveness of the aircraft's brakes, potentially causing it to slide off the runway.
Los Angeles Fire Dept. Battalion Chief Lou Roupoli said, "The pilot did an outstanding job. He kept the plane on its rear tires as long as he could before he brought [the nose gear down]." When the nose gear did touch down, there were sparks and flames from it, but no apparent damage to the rest of the plane. At 6:20pm PDT (UTC
Coordinated Universal Time
Coordinated Universal Time is the primary time standard by which the world regulates clocks and time. It is one of several closely related successors to Greenwich Mean Time. Computer servers, online services and other entities that rely on having a universally accepted time use UTC for that purpose...
-7), the aircraft came to a stop very close to the end of the 11,096-foot (3382-meter) runway 25L. In an attempt to keep the nose gear off the ground as long as possible, reverse thrust was not used to slow the aircraft. The pilots therefore used a much larger portion of the available runway than in a typical landing, stopping 1,000 feet / 305 m before the end of the runway, validating the decision to divert from Long Beach, where the longest runway is 10,000 feet (3048 m).
Aftermath and evaluation
Passengers began to disembark less than seven minutes later. The landing was smooth and no physical injuries were reported. The aircraft was evacuated via airstairAirstair
An airstair is a passenger staircase that is built in to an airliner — often, though not always, on the inside of a clamshell-style door. The stairs can be raised or lowered while the aircraft is on the ground, allowing passengers and ground personnel to board or depart the aircraft without the...
s, as opposed to Evacuation Slides typically used in an emergency situation.
As JetBlue did not operate from LAX at the time, the aircraft was towed to a Continental Airlines
Continental Airlines
Continental Airlines was a major American airline now merged with United Airlines. On May 3, 2010, Continental Airlines, Inc. and UAL, Inc. announced a merger via a stock swap, and on October 1, 2010, the merger closed and UAL changed its name to United Continental Holdings, Inc...
hangar at LAX for evaluation.
Expert opinion expressed was that, despite the drama and live worldwide coverage, there was little real danger to the passengers or crew of Flight 292. The A320, like all modern airliners, is engineered to tolerate certain failures, and if necessary can be landed without the nose gear at all.
A similar incident with an A320 occurred on an America West Airlines
America West Airlines
America West Airlines corporate offices were in Tempe, Arizona and the main hub was at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport. The airline became part of the US Airways Group after a merger in 2005....
flight in February 1999 in Columbus, Ohio
Columbus, Ohio
Columbus is the capital of and the largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio. The broader metropolitan area encompasses several counties and is the third largest in Ohio behind those of Cleveland and Cincinnati. Columbus is the third largest city in the American Midwest, and the fifteenth largest city...
(Flight 2811). The NTSB found the cause was a failure of the external o-rings in the nose landing gear steering module." That plane also landed safely.
The media reported that this was at least the seventh occurrence of an Airbus A320 series aircraft touching down with the landing gear locked ninety degrees out of position, and one of at least sixty-seven "nose wheel failures" on A319, A320 and A321 aircraft worldwide since 1989. Earlier incidents included another JetBlue flight bound for New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, a United Airlines
United Airlines
United Air Lines, Inc., is the world's largest airline with 86,852 employees United Air Lines, Inc., is the world's largest airline with 86,852 employees United Air Lines, Inc., is the world's largest airline with 86,852 employees (which includes the entire holding company United Continental...
flight into Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, and the America West flight into Columbus, Ohio
Columbus, Ohio
Columbus is the capital of and the largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio. The broader metropolitan area encompasses several counties and is the third largest in Ohio behind those of Cleveland and Cincinnati. Columbus is the third largest city in the American Midwest, and the fifteenth largest city...
. While some incidents were traced to faulty maintenance and denied as a design flaw by Airbus Industries, the manufacturer had issued maintenance advisories to A320 owners which were later mandated as Airworthiness Directive
Airworthiness Directive
An Airworthiness Directive is a notification to owners and operators of certified aircraft that a known safety deficiency with a particular model of aircraft, engine, avionics or other system exists and must be corrected....
s by American and French aviation authorities. Messier-Dowty
Messier-Dowty
Messier-Dowty is a company involved in the design, development, manufacture and customer support of all types of aircraft landing gear. The company projects are divided into two business units: Airbus & European Programs and Boeing & North American Programs....
, which manufactures nose gear assemblies for the A320, stated in a National Transportation Safety Board
National Transportation Safety Board
The National Transportation Safety Board is an independent U.S. government investigative agency responsible for civil transportation accident investigation. In this role, the NTSB investigates and reports on aviation accidents and incidents, certain types of highway crashes, ship and marine...
(NTSB) report in 2004 that part of the gear had been redesigned to prevent future problems, but at the time the redesign was awaiting approval. Mechanics familiar with this common fault usually replace or re-program the Brake Steering Control Unit (BSCU) computer.
The NTSB report says that worn-out seals were to blame for the malfunction. Also the brake steering control unit system contributed to the problem. Airbus claims to have fixed the problem in an upgrade.
Following the incident, the aircraft was repaired and returned to service still bearing the name "Canyon Blue." JetBlue no longer uses Flight 292 on its Burbank-JFK route; the flight route designation for JetBlue's flights between Burbank and New York are now Flights 350 and 358.
External links
- NTSB Report
- JetBlue Flight 292 Video of the landing
- http://media.podshow.com/media/227/episodes/4501/flywithme-4501-09-22-2005_pshow_43570.mp3 Captured audio of Pilot discussing problem with Air Traffic Control, from the Fly With Me podcast.