None of the 119 passengers or crew were injured in the incident, which blocked plane traffic for hours, airport officials said.
Southwest Flight 3050 took off from Sacramento and was en route to San Diego on Sunday afternoon when cockpit instruments indicated possible problems with the Boeing 737's landing gear.
The pilot was diverted to Oakland to land, where air traffic controllers saw during a flyby that the plane's rear landing gear was cocked to the side, Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Ian Gregor said.
The plane retracted and lowered its landing gear again, and a second flyby of the tower showed all three pieces—one under the nose and one under each wing—appeared to be correctly in place, Gregor said.
After the pilots cycled the landing gear one more time, a visual inspection showed no problems, and three green lights in the cockpit indicated the gear was operating properly.
But after landing, the gear at the plane's nose collapsed and the plane skidded down the runway.
"Unfortunately, the back landing gear landed just fine, but the nose gear went up inside the aircraft and retracted," airport spokeswoman Cyndy Johnson said.
All passengers were evacuated to the terminal, and most were put on other flights home, Johnson said. The plane was removed from the runway late Sunday night and the runway reopened around 5:45 a.m. Monday morning, as FAA officials and Southwest maintenance crews continued to investigate the cause of the collapse. Delays at Oakland International as a result of the incident were light as controllers diverted other flights to alternate runways, Johnson said.
Source : www.mercurynews.com
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