Eastern Airlines Flight 274

On the morning of January 18, 1978, a Boeing 727-25 (registration N8126N) operating as Eastern Airlines Flight 274, made a 2 point landing at Miami International Airport (KIMA)after circling for 90 minutes. Flight 274 was en route from Palm Beach International Airport (KPBI), West Palm Beach, FL to Atlanta, GA, and then on to St. Louis, MO with 70 passengers and 6 crew members.

A few minutes after taking off from Palm Beach International Airport, the captain of flight 274, Wayne Nolan, discovered that the nose wheel had locked into the up position. This would PReVENT the nose wheel from lowering for landing. An aircraft's landing gear are unlocked when in the up position.

Flight 274 had been airborne for five minutes when Captain Nolan announced to the passengers that he would be making an emergency landing. Attempts to crank the nose wheel down by hand had failed. It was at that point Captain Nolan explained to the passengers that the best airport for attempting the emergency landing would be Miami International Airport.

Captain Nolan made a pass over the control tower at Miami International to allow the ground personnel to inspect the wheel doors. After doing so, the passengers were alerted as to the next attempt to open the wheel doors. The aircraft was placed into three engine stalls, allowing the aircraft to drop sharply. This was done in an unsuccessful attempt to jolt the doors open.

Shortly afterward, flight 274 was cleared to land using Runway 12. The decision not to spread foam on the runway was due to two factors. First, the jet was below fuel load. In addition, the point of ground contact would be in the nose area, where there would be little possibility of generating sparks. Captain Nolan advised passengers to assume crash positions one minute prior to landing.

The aircraft tracked the glide slope smoothly according to eyewitnesses. The main wheels touched down, and as the aircraft proceeded down the runway during braking, the nose was held level. The nose slowly dropped, and upon contact, the aircraft maintained a straight course on the runway, coming to rest near its end at 11:05 am. Emergency chutes were deployed and all 76 passengers and crew exited the plane safely with no serious injuries reported.

Investigators were able to attribute the nose wheel's locked condition to a small metal rod. This metal rod activates the unlocking mechanism for the nose gear. The rod sheared in the middle, possibly due to stress or a related cause. This was said to be an extremely rare problem.

Captain Wayne Nolan was praised for his skillful handling of the aircraft. At the time of the incident, he was 52 years of age with 11,182 total hours of flying experience. 4,547 of those hours were in Boeing 727's.

Minor damage to the aircraft's nose gear area was repaired and the aircraft eventually returned to service.

References

Sources:Miami Herald; Thursday January 19, 1978 EDition

http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/brief.asp?ev_id=42810&key=0 NTSB brief AbOUT the incident