Landing gear failure on Emirates A380 under investigation
london/berlin — An investigation is under way after one set of landing gear on an Emirates Airbus A380 failed to deploy properly before landing, forcing the world’s largest airliner to touch down on its remaining wheels.
The airliner was arriving in Dubai from London last week when the crew received an error message concerning a system responsible for deploying the gear.
An alternative method of deployment based on lowering the wheels using gravity failed to work properly.
“What happened was that righthand gear didn’t deploy under gravity drop,” Emirates President Tim Clark said when asked about the incident.
“So the aircraft landed on the main gear (and) nose gear: it’s certified to do that,” he said, adding the under-wing gear which contains four wheels had since been fixed. The cause is being investigated by the UAE’s air crash investigation agency.
“I will be asking Airbus a few questions as to how this could have happened,” Clark told reporters in Berlin.
“We are assisting our customer in the technical investigation into the issue,” an Airbus spokesman said.
Rolls-Royce engines
Emirates is having some unspecified technical issues with RollsRoyce engines for A380 jets that
I will be asking Airbus a few questions as to how this could have happened Tim Clark, President, Emirates
are coming up for delivery, but still hopes to take the first one as scheduled in December, he said.
When asked whether Emirates was looking to defer A380 jet deliveries, Tim Clark said no, but that there were some technical issues with the Rolls-Royce engines, new for the Emirates fleet, that needed to be ironed out.
“We want the engines as prescribed in the contract,” Clark told journalists, declining to elaborate.
Emirates is due to receive its first A380 powered by RollsRoyce engines on December 2. The rest of its A380 fleet uses Engine Alliance.
“We have made no hard and fast decisions about fleeting draw down. We’re hoping to get a resolution to this very quickly,” he said.
Emirates has $112 billion of aircraft on order, including 55 A380s. It is due to receive five A380s in December alone, Clark said.
“We are working with our customers, supporting their delivery stream,” an Airbus spokesman said. —