Delta flight could not lower landing gear because of broken support piece, NTSB finds
A Delta Air Lines Boeing 717 landed on its belly after a crack in a part of the supports for the nose landing gear kept it from extending, according to a National Transportation Safety Board final report issued Tuesday.
The flight was attempting to land at Charlotte Douglas International Airport on June 28, 2023, when a warning light came on as the pilots were trying to lower the landing gear.
The jet circled the airport as they attempted to manually extend the gear, but without success. After multiple tries, the pilots declared an emergency and landed with the nose gear up, skidding to a stop with the front of the plane scraping the runway.
The 99 passengers and five crew members were not injured during the landing and departed the aircraft on emergency slides.
The NTSB found a metal fatigue crack along scratches in the 'upper lock link,' one of the forged aluminum supports for the landing gear.
'The appearance of the scratch features was consistent with tool marks such as from filing or grinding operations,' the NTSB report said. 'These scratch features likely acted as stress concentration areas for crack initiation.'
A 2001 alert from the plane's manufactures, Boeing and McDonnell Douglas, called for these parts to be inspected for tool marks or rough surfaces, and this 'upper lock link' had been marked as inspected in 2009.
After an overhaul of the landing gear, the part was put into a different plane in 2014 where it remained until the accident.
The NTSB found that the maintenance facility did not comply with the service bulletin, which contributed to the accident.
In total, the part had flown 41,257 times before it broke, the report concluded.
As a result of the investigation into this accident, all Boeing 717 'lock links' were inspected and no additional cracks were found.
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