While parked at a remote stand, the nose gear of this Eva Air B747 collapsed. Engineers were troubleshooting some technical problems, which had delayed the flight to BKK and TPE. According to contemporary eyewitness reports:
“Apparently the BA guys were troubleshooting a hydraulic leak on one of the main gears. This required lifting the landing gear lever to the up position. This wouldn’t normally be a problem if the nose gear down-lock pin is correctly installed, but the pin rests on the nose gear doors and when the doors opened as the first part of the gear sequence, the pin fell out as it wasn’t correctly latched into position, consequently the nose gear retracted”. The British Airways Engineers used a crude non standard nose gear pin of the own design which did not have a safety locking device. During retraction test following the replacement of a leaking hydraulic seal on the gear…..It just fell out. No EVA personnel were involved in this incident.
“The aircraft also suffered damage to an entry door which came down onto a set of steps, which also set off the escape slide. Unfortunately, the aircraft also settled onto the fixed electrical ground power unit, which got buried into the fuselage”.
“Rumour control has it, that it will be out of service for 2-3 months and cost between $6-8 million to repair. Apparently, when it landed on it’s open nose gear doors (which looked like a venetian blind afterwards) it forced the whole nose gear bay upwards into the fuse slightly……..Oh dear!”
“Apparently, there was one person slightly injured…..A bag ape (baggage handler) was rifling through the galley, eating a lamb chop, when the aircraft dropped he went upwards, banging his head on the galley structure. He reportedly needed a few stitches and I would expect a clean pair of Y-fronts…”
Aircraft towed to the British Airways East Engineering Base for repairs, which were completed “on site” and the aircraft left Heathrow to return to service on 22 September 2004 (four months later, almost to the day)
Source – https://aviation-safety.net/
