Prepared For Crash Landing

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29931, 19 September 1962, Page 14

Prepared For Crash Landing

(N.Z. Press Association) WELLINGTON, September 18. A National Airways Corporation DC3 freighter, scheduled to land at Wellington Airport this afternoon, was diverted to Ohakea for a crash landing because it was thought to have a wheel retraction fault.

E:nergency procedures were already being carried out at the R.NZAF. station and the aircraft was circling for its wheels-up descent on to the grass when a signal on the flight deck control panel indicated the wheels had locked. The DC3 landed normally. The freighter was on a charter flight with a cargo of carpet from Christchurch to Wellington, and arrived over Wellington airport about 230 p.m. Captain J. S. McDonald and First Officer J. P. Allsop, both of Christchurch, received no signal from their control

panel indicating the wheels had locked. They circled for a time, attempting to remedy the fault, thinking it was possible the wheels had locked but that the signal system was faulty. N.A.C: ground engineers drove to the airport control tower and watched through binoculars as the DC3 flew low along the runway, on the normal landing approach into a southerly. The engineers also went to the Evans Bay end of the runway to look at the wheels as the aircraft approached again on a low run to the airport Neither observation showed conclusively that the wheels were locked. After circling for 45 minutes the freighter still had sufficient fuel to fly to Ohakea, and this field was chosen for the landing. Ohakea was preferred because of its length of runway and its expansive, unobstructed grassed areas. While the plane continued to circle Wellington harbour, another NA.C. DC3 was prepared to accompany it, and took off soon after carrying NA£'s station engineer (Mr R. H. Ballard), its* district senior

pilot (Mr M. Cullinane), and ground engineers. On arrival at Ohakea about 4.15 pm, Captain McDonald lowered the undercarriage and feathered one of the freighter’s two engines, which is standard procedure for an emergency landing. He bumped the aircraft’s wheels on the runway in an attempt to lock the undercarriage then flew off again.

The Are tenders which had been strategically stationed along the runway stood by as he turned the aircraft and came into land. The aircraft made a perfect touchdown and rolled to a halt. A party of NA.C. engineers. who had arrived in a special flight which left Wellington at 330 p.m. then inspected the aircraft. They found the undercarriage had been functioning normally for the whole flight. bu>» the micro-switch was faulty. It had failed to activate the cockpit light and the pilot could not have been sure the undercarriage was locked correctly. Both NAC aircraft took off for Wellington about 5.30 p.m.