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A Boeing 737 operated by Sun Express suffered a landing gear collapse while taxiing for departure at Antalya Airport in Turkey, leaving the aircraft inoperable on the taxiway and resting on one of its own engines. Fortunately, no passengers or crew members were reported to be injured, and everyone onboard was able to disembark via stairs.
Reports indicate that the aircraft suffered a technical malfunction, which resulted in the gear suddenly collapsing as the aircraft taxied ahead of takeoff. The aircraft sustained considerable damage during the accident, which has left it grounded for the time being.
When The Landing Gear Lets Go!
This incident occurred on Friday, February 13, when a Sun Express Boeing 737-800 aircraft was taxiing to the runway at Antalya Airport (AYT). According to The Aviation Herald, the aircraft’s left landing gear collapsed while it was taxiing. This naturally resulted in the aircraft rolling to the left before coming to rest on its engine number one (left engine), leaving it stuck on the taxiway.
Reports indicate that no members of the crew or passengers were hurt during this incident, and everyone on board was able to evacuate using stairs. The aircraft was on taxiway J at Antalya Airport in Turkey when the gear collapsed, and was on its way to depart from Runway 18L to perform a domestic flight to Gaziantep Airport (GZT). The airline has since confirmed that the aircraft suffered a technical malfunction, which resulted in the gear collapsing.
The affected passengers were flown to the destination with an alternate aircraft, albeit with a delay of over four hours. The aircraft will remain grounded while the collapsed gear is fixed, and the maintenance team will attend to any damage that might have been sustained by the engine and the wing of the aircraft. Simple Flying has reached out to the airline to know more about this incident.
Protections In Place Against Gear Retraction
As per the pictures available on various social media platforms, it appears that the entire landing gear strut bent or broke backwards, causing structural damage. This indicates that this was not a case of inadvertent landing gear retraction, as the main gears of a Boeing 737 retract sideways into the belly of the aircraft. The true cause of this incident can only be determined by a thorough investigation of the aircraft, its components, and data logs.
A more common reason for a landing gear to collapse is the inadvertent retraction of the gear, which can often be linked to human errors. However, considering the level of safety present in all aspects of aviation, there are various safety buffers to prevent such incidents from occurring. A well-known protection is the landing gear pins, the bright red tags carrying the words “Remove Before Flight”. These are pins that are inserted when the aircraft is stationary on the ground, and basically prevent the gears from retracting even if someone manually tries to retract the gear from the flight deck.
Another safety feature that prevents the inadvertent retraction of the gears, even without the safety pins, is the Weight On Wheels (WOW) system. This is essentially a circuit that can detect whether the aircraft is flying or on the ground, and depending on this, various relevant systems of the aircraft will be enabled or disabled. One of the functions of the WOW system is that it can detect whether the aircraft is on the ground and prevent the landing gears from retracting.
Why Doesn’t The Boeing 737 Have Landing Gear Doors?
What is behind this design feature, and is it really all that unusual at all?
An Unusual Situation In This Case
Landing gears typically collapse or face damage when the aircraft is coming in to land, due to the speed at which the aircraft lands, or possibly a high-G impact with the ground on touchdown. This incident was a little unusual, considering the aircraft was just taxiing, although this is not unheard of.
Just last week, a Fedex Express Airbus A300 freighter at Baltimore Airport (BWI) was stationary on the ground when it suddenly experienced a nose-gear collapse. As per reports, the aircraft was undergoing some maintenance work when the gear strut gave out. No one was injured in this incident, and the FAA is now investigating the cause of the gear collapse.
In the case of the Sun Express incident, it will be investigated by the Turkish authorities, given the location of the incident and the Turkish aircraft registration. It is possible that the FAA will get involved because this was a Boeing aircraft, as well as technical support from Turkish Airlines and Lufthansa because of the ownership arrangement of Sun Express.
