A deadly plane crash in Pakistan is prompting questions about how the crew could touch down without landing gear when their sophisticated jetliner was bristling with equipment to prevent pilots from doing just that.
After an abrupt descent that unnerved air-traffic controllers, the crew of the Pakistan International Airlines Corp. jet on Friday briefly put the aircraft on the runway with the wheels still up, grinding along on its two engines at a speed of more than 200 miles per hour, according to preliminary data.
“It is unbelievable to me that an airline crew on a jet like an Airbus, with all the warning systems, would attempt to land the plane without the gear extended,” said John Cox, an aviation safety consultant who formerly flew the A320 narrow-body as a U.S. airline pilot.
In addition to checklists designed to make sure pilots don’t attempt to touch down without the landing gear, the jetliner has multiple warning systems that should alert crews if they somehow forget or the gear aren’t working.
“The airplane is not happy that you’re this close to the ground without the gear extended,” said Cox, who is president of consulting company Safety Operating Systems.
It’s not yet clear why the two jet engines quit after functioning well enough for about two minutes to lift the plane about 3,000 feet above the runway. Engines have become so reliable that losing two at the same time is almost always because of some common factor, such as a problem with the fuel supply or, in this case, damage from hitting the runway.
Regardless, the bizarre landing attempt—which was carried out without any indication from the crew that they’d had an emergency during their initial descent—either triggered the accident or was a catalyst that worsened the situation, according to Cox and others who have studied crashes.
“The million dollar question is why the plane landed, touched the ground three times and then took off,” Ghulam Sarwar Khan, Pakistan’s aviation minister, said in a press briefing Friday.
The probe will be aided by the discovery of the jet’s cockpit voice recorder, which has been found in the wreckage and will be sent to France for analysis, he said. The flight data recorder was located earlier.
A Pakistan International spokesman declined to comment on “incomplete information.” An Airbus spokesman referred queries to Pakistani authorities. Civil aviation spokesman Abdul Sattar Khokhar didn’t respond to a call on his mobile phone.
As Flight 8303 from Lahore approached Karachi’s Jinnah International Airport last Friday afternoon, air-traffic controllers were concerned that it wasn’t descending on the proper path, according to a leaked preliminary report cited by Sky News. A controller cautioned the pilots that they were “high” and urged them to adjust, according to the report.
Turn Back
“We are comfortable. We can make it,” the pilot can be heard telling the controller, according to a recording of Karachi’s air-traffic radio posted on the LiveATC.net website.
Twice as the plane neared the runway, a controller told pilots to turn and break off their approach, according to the report. Again, the pilot declined, responding on the radio he was “comfortable” and was prepared to land on runway 25-Left.
At no point did the pilots say they had a problem with their landing gear or any other type of emergency, according to the radio calls.
Approaching a runway with such a rapid descent, which often leads to higher-than-recommended speeds, is a harbinger of danger, according to decades of warnings from investigative agencies such as the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board and the nonprofit Flight Safety Foundation.
After the controllers finally cleared the plane to land—despite their earlier warnings—the pilot replied, “roger.” In the background, the sound of a cockpit warning chime can be heard.
Too Much Energy
The jetliner was well above the normal speed as it neared the runway, said Jeffrey Guzzetti, the former chief accident investigator for the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration. It was traveling at roughly 250 mph at about 1,000 feet above the ground, according to tracking website Flightradar24.
That’s more than 50 mph faster than is typical for jets like the A320, Guzzetti said.
“They have too much energy for a normal landing,” he said. It not only increases the chances of skidding off the runway, but puts additional pressure on the pilots to slow the jet and can lead to other things going wrong.
Flightradar24’s data suggests that the A320 was traveling at 375 kilometers per hour (233 kph) when it reached the runway and slowed to about 327 kph as it lifted off. The data hasn’t been validated by investigators.
Computer System
While it’s possible that the pilots might have have forgotten about the landing gear in the chaos and confusion, it’s still puzzling, according to Guzzetti and Cox.
The Airbus’s on-board computer system issues a warning sound and illuminates a light to draw attention to a message if the gear isn’t out as the plane nears the ground.
A separate safety system designed to prevent aircraft from inadvertently striking the ground also senses when the gear isn’t deployed before landing. Its recorded voice repeatedly says “too low, gear” if the problem continues.
Before-landing checklists also require crews to verify that the plane’s instruments show the wheels are locked into place.
“It’s very unusual in modern-transport-category aircraft to have a no-gear landing, just because of the checklist and the warnings that go off,” Guzzetti said.
At about 2:34 p.m., the plane slammed onto the runway. Its engines left a series of black smudge marks, starting at 4,500 feet from the start of the landing strip, according to video of the runway broadcast by news outlets. It shows three separate patches, as if the plane skipped into the air between impacts.
“Going around,” a pilot on the jet told controllers, the term for aborting a landing and taking off again.
The plane climbed about 3,000 feet, but couldn’t hold its altitude, according to the radio transmissions and flight data.
“Sir, we have lost engines,” a pilot said. Then, 30 seconds later, he said, “Mayday. Mayday. Mayday.”
Seconds later, the plane hit the ground, with its fuselage falling into the street and the wings and engines smashing into the second story of a building.
