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Sun, Jul 18, 2004

When Not To Use Air Bags

China Airlines 747 nosewheel retracts, air bags are used to lift nose up, up, up... whoa!

The following series of photographs, courtesy of Gary Wiblins' Aviation Safety Forum newsletter, is of a mishap with a China Airlines jumbo.

Apparently, a safety pin needs to be inserted on a parked B747 to prevent the nosewheel being inadvertently retracted. It seems that in this case... well... it just wasn't. There must have been an inadvertent person in the cockpit, because the nose wheel did in fact retract, as shown in pictures 1 and 2.

Our Chinese friends, not to be outdone, hatched a plan. They inserted some airbags under the nose, in picture 3, and proceeded to successfully lift the nose clear of the ground. In fact, well clear, as shown in picture 4...

Unfortunately, nobody seemed to remember that when you lift the nose of an aircraft, the tail goes down.

Right down!

In this case, onto a tailstand that could not have been in a worse place at the worst time, as shown in pictures 5 through 8.

Perhaps it was a language misunderstanding...

FMI: mailto:garywiblin@worldonline.co.za

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