SEATTLE Boeing and All Nippon Airways are investigating a landing gear problem on the 787 Dreamliner after pilots were forced to deploy the gear using an electronic backup system.
It s the first major glitch for the plane which began regular service Nov. 1. According to ANA this is the first airplane delivered by Boeing to an airline, the 8th Dreamliner Boeing's built.
In a statment late this afternoon ANAsays the problem was caused by a faulty hydraulic valve, and that no emergency call was made by the pilot. The plane is back in service. The airline considers the incident minor.
KING-5 news has learned that when the pilot activated the landing gear switch on the cockpit panel, (a control that has the traditional wheel shape to it,) the nose gear deployed but the main gear under the wings did not. A photograph taken from the ground shows the main landing gear well sealed up tight.
Next to the landing gear controller is a backup switch with a cover on it...the switch has a normal setting and a down setting. The backup switch was used to lower the gear.
Boeing says the 787 has now been through more than 5,000 hours of flight testing and no landing gear issues have surfaced. The only thing that comes even remotely close happened during the first flight of the second test airplane where the main landing gear doors failed to retract after the gear was deployed normally.
Last week, a Boeing 767 landed safely on its belly in Warsaw, Poland after its main gear failed to deploy.
Reuters reports that, according to the Flight Safety Foundation, there have been ten incidents since 2000 involving stuck landing gear. None of them were fatal.
