TAIC report into Q300 emergency landing released

©2011 Blair Ensor Marlborough Express/Fairfax Media

The Transport Accident Investigation Commission (TAIC) have released their report into the Emergency landing made by Air Nelson Q300 ZK-NEQ at Woodbourne/Blenheim after diverting from Wellington in February 2011.

TAIC found there was nothing mechanically wrong with the plane.
"The nose landing gear did not extend because the pilots did not pull hard enough on the handle that should have released the uplock," it said.
"If the uplock had released, the nose landing gear would have lowered under gravity and locked down."   

The article reports that while training in the simulator for gear failure it took a much lighter pull than it did in reality to release the landing gear.  Air Nelson have since modified their simulators to match the actual force required, while the TAIC have recommended the director of NZ CAA talk to his counterpart at Transport Canada to discuss the possibility of making  training simulator performance there match real life situations.

Sadly for avgeeks in NZ and also for the pilots involved in this incident, despite this report clearing them personally of wrong doing due to the inadequate training received the headline and first paragraph of this stuff.co.nz article insinuates that this incident was their error.

Read the full stuff.co.nz article HERE