At Least Seven Reported Problems With Sideways A320 Nosewheels

In the glow of the spotlight brought by Wednesday's nationally televised emergency landing of JetBlue Flight 292, new information has been revealed on the history of problems with the nosegear on the Airbus A320.

There are now reports of as many as seven other incidents involving crooked nosewheels -- and subsequent emergency landings -- on the Airbus A320. Besides JetBlue, the narrowbody is also a popular choice with domestic carriers such as America West (who also had a sideways nosegear incident in 1999) and TED, low-cost offshoot of United Airlines.

In fact, this week's televised (some would say sensationalized) incident wasn't even the first time such a problem had struck a JetBlue aircraft. In November 2002, an A320 carrying 166 passengers onboard made an emergency landing at JFK in an incident that almost exactly mirrors Wednesday's dramatic landing at LAX.

The NTSB has interviewed pilot Scott Burke, who masterfully guided the airliner to safety Wednesday night. The agency is also looking over data obtained from the cockpit voice recorders and flight data recorders onboard Flight 292, as well as carefully disassembling the nosegear assembly of the affected aircraft -- N536JB, or "Canyon Blue" -- looking for any clues that might shed light on why the trouble occurred.

"If it's not assembled properly, that could have one effect," said NTSB investigator Howard Plagens during a media briefing. "Unless you disassemble it in an orderly manner, you could destroy the evidence that leads you to what happened here."

As Aero-News reported Thursday, Airbus has apparently known of potential trouble with the nosegear of the A320 for some time. A technical service bulletin was issued in 1998 by the European consortium, advising 18-month component check intervals involving the nosegear steering mechanism. It is unknown if a maintenance issue -- such as what is covered by that TSB -- was responsible for Wednesday's incident.

FMI: www.jetblue.com