The National Transportation Safety Board launched an investigation into the twin gear failures aboard an US Airways Air Wisconsin CRJ 200 in Philadelphia and a Mesa Airlines United Express CRJ 700 at Chicago. The CRJ problems follow the 2007 landing gear problems on Bombardier’s Q400s, which grounded the worldwide fleet.
The failures happened within a day of each other and began with the Air Wisconsin flight making a gear-up landing last week when its left main landing gear failed to extend. After an hour’s worth of trouble shooting, the aircraft landed without its left main gear. The aircraft was on a ferry flight with only the pilots and flight attendant on board, having been delayed out of Norfolk and its passenger re-accommodated on other flights. The flight landed on a blanket of foam on Runway 27 Left shortly after 5 pm, closing the airport for about an hour. The CRJ 200’s left wing was lifted by crane, allowing the gear to be extended manually before it was towed off the runway.
The United Express aircraft suffered a gear-up landing, this time at O’Hare when a United Express flight from Chicago to South Bend was forced to return to Chicago after takeoff when the pilots received an “unsafe gear” warning in the cockpit. None of the 28 passengers on board was injured and were later accommodated on other flights.