Oops, forgot to retract the landing gear!

[NickN]

Ruskis are at it again, this time a TU-154 crew forgot to retract the landing gear and only retracted it at FL298, nearly causing the aircraft to fall on top of a 763 below it, separation of the aircraft was only 30 metres!. Details are:

A UTAir Tupolev TU-154M, registration RA-85069 performing flight UT-437 from Moscow Vnukovo to Samara (Russia), was instructed to climb to 9100 meters (FL298), the crew however had not retracted the gear. The airplane stopped climbing, the speed decayed dangerously to about 540 kph (291 knots) above ground and the airplane started to lose altitude.

A Transaero Airlines Boeing 767-300, registration EI-DBG performing flight UN-123 from Moscow Domodedovo to Vladivostok (Russia), was flying the same track about 4km (2nm) behind and below the Tupolev and was at 7500 meters (FL246).

An air traffic controller recognized the conflict seeing the Tupolev in danger of falling on top of the Boeing and had the Boeing turn right immediately. The Boeing turned right immediately and thus averted a collision.

The Tupolev crew reacted only to the third call by the air traffic controller and pulled their airplane into a climb again, however not without stalling the airplane. The Tupolev crew subsequently recovered their airplane and retracted the gear.

Both airplanes continued to their destinations without further incidents.

Russia's Rosaeronavigaciya (Air Traffic Control) reported, that the whole event unfolded within 15 seconds, the minimum separation between the aircraft was only 30 meters (!). More than 300 people were on board of the two airplanes. The Tupolev reached a minimum altitude of 7200 meters (FL236).

The chairman of Rosaeronavigaciya awarded the air traffic controller for his performance averting the collision. The controller had less than 2 seconds to detect, decide and resolve the conflict. The incident became known only through this award.

Transaero Airlines could not disclose more details due to the ongoing investigation, but confirmed the sequence of events as presented by Rosaeronavigaciya and stated: "Russian Air Authorities found Transaero's pilot acquisitions during the incident absolutely adequate and highly professional."

UTAir could not be reached for comment.

The Russian Accident Investigation Commission (MAK) have opened an investigation.

It is unknown, whether the airplanes carried TCAS (Traffic and Collision Avoidance System) and whether TCAS advisories were issued. According to a report by "Komsomolskaja Prawda" of May 20th, the TU-154 pilots said, their airplane did not carry a TCAS. The system was removed from the airplane and put into another aircraft scheduled to fly abroad.

The Russian Federal Agency of Air Transport reported on May 20th, that all aircraft engaged in international flights are required to carry TCAS II. All crew members of the Tupolev 154 have been suspended, the airworthiness certificate for the TU-154M RA-85069 has been suspended as well.

Russian Media report, that the captain of the Tupolev may not have been in the cockpit at the time of the incident, although the airplane was still in the climb about 10 minutes into the flight.

[Grahame Hutchison]

.... and they didn't realise the aircraft was performing just a little differently climbing out to FL298 with the wheels down. It's a wonder the undercarriage was still attached.

[NickN]

Scary aint it?.......

What professional (used very loosely in this instance) crew forgets to retract the gear right after take-off?

Its ........ V1..... Rotate...... Positive Rate Of Climb...... GEAR UP!!!!

All within a matter of seconds....... hard to understand how they forgot.

[Nigel C]

They build those Russian aircraft tough, Grahame!

[Jarrad Wadmore]

hard to understand how they forgot

A bit too much drinky drinky before departure?

[Nigel C]

Maybe not enough?

[Gerard M]

Can both pilots seriously have not noticed that the gear wasn't up? Myabe it was an early morning flight and they hadn't gotten into the bottle yet?

[Rhys Xanthis]

In soviet Russia, airplane flies you.

[damien b]

Plenty of aircrew over the years have forgotten to lower the landing gear, so i guess forgetting to raise the landing gear is no worse - actually i rather forget to raise the landing gear than forget to lower it.