It Wasn't Like That When I Left It...

No one is exactly sure WHAT happened overnight Saturday at Cleveland International Airport... but when ground crews reported for work on Sunday morning, they found that the nosewheel of a Northwest Airlines BAE/Avro 146 regional jet had collapsed at the gate.

No one was onboard the aircraft at the time, and it appears neither the aircraft or the jetway suffered excessive damage.

ANN reader John C. Webb was at CLE Sunday, and he was able to snap some pictures of the incident. In the picture, ground crews are "trying to "re-extend" the nose gear," John writes.

While it's unclear what led to the incident this weekend, the FAA recently issued Airworthiness Directive 2006-01-09, requiring crews to check parts numbers on Avro 146 nosegear main fitting subassemblies to determine if those assemblies may be outside their safe-life limits.

"Operating with an NLG fitting sub-assembly that is beyond its approved safe-life limit could result in failure of the NLG and consequent loss of directional control on the ground and major structural damage to the airplane," the text of the AD states.

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IDENTIFICATION
  Regis#: 517XJ        Make/Model: RJ85      Description: AVRO 146-RJ85A
  Date: 03/05/2006     Time: 1015

  Event Type: Incident   Highest Injury: None     Mid Air: N    Missing: N
  Damage: Unknown

LOCATION
  City: CLEVELAND   State: OH   Country: US

DESCRIPTION
  N517XJ, A NORTHWEST AIRLINES RJ85A ACFT, WHILE PARKED OVERNIGHT WAS
  DISCOVERED WITH THE NOSE GEAR COLLAPSED, NOT INFLIGHT, NO ONE ON BOARD,
  CLEVELAND, OH

INJURY DATA      Total Fatal:   0
                 # Crew:   0     Fat:   0     Ser:   0     Min:   0     Unk:   
                 # Pass:   0     Fat:   0     Ser:   0     Min:   0     Unk:   
                 # Grnd:         Fat:   0     Ser:   0     Min:   0     Unk:   

WEATHER: NOT REPORTED

OTHER DATA

  Departed:                             Dep Date:    Dep. Time:     
  Destination:                          Flt Plan:              Wx Briefing: 
  Last Radio Cont: 
  Last Clearance: 

  FAA FSDO: CLEVELAND, OH  (GL25)                 Entry date: 03/06/2006

FMI: www.faa.gov