AlaskaAV
GONE WEST
Mission, TX
When assigned to bush airports for Wien, I always made it a practice to observe all landings and departures of our aircraft. Probably more than anything else just wishing I was sitting in the left seat.
On this inbound 737 flight it was no different. It looked like a normal landing and taxi back. As it left the runway onto an angled taxiway, the aircraft was headed more or less toward our terminal. I noted the outboard tire on the right main gear was leaning over at maybe 60 degrees or so. When it was parked, what I had seen was true so went over to an area where the Captain could see me and I pointed to the gear and motioned him down. Needless to say, one of the crew would have came down anyway though for the normal walkaround. It was on the side away from the deplaning passengers which helped.
There was a little smoke (or steam) from the right gear area.
It was unbelievable what we found.
The tire and rim had almost entirely came off the axle, all the brake disks and pads were pulled apart but all still on the axle. Needless to say, the brake on that wheel assembly would not work but there was no sign of oil leakage thank goodness. As I recall, our 737s had an A and B system for braking. One system operated one wheel on each side so on rollout, he had 75% braking and he didn't notice anything really wrong. A brake fire at Barrow could have been disastrous since there was no airport fire equipment. At least we had plenty of the good old blue fire extinguishers close by and everyone had been trained never to use a red extinguisher on a brake fire. Talk about an explosion.
The Captain immediately went inside and called our dispatcher in Anchorage and reported the problem. They scrounged up another 737 and crew to fly to Barrow (with a load of cargo of course) and complete the trip and bring in mechanics to take it apart and to find out what all would be needed.
Durring the entire repair process, the APU was left running to keep heat in the aircraft so it wouldn't freeze up. If I recall right, and I might be wrong, the cockpit crew stayed with the aircraft and the flight attendants went out on the first flight since we knew it would be a ferry flight.
What they found was that no grease had been applied to the outer bearing when the wheel assembly was removed and replaced for normal maintenance 4 cycles prior to the landing at Barrow. Never did hear what happened to the mechanic that signed it off. The bearing got so hot it seized to the washer which froze to the locking ring and broke off the lip that fit in the locking grove and than seized to the wheel nut and spun it off. That allowed the wheel assemble to have a head of it's own but at least it stayed on the truck.
Maintenance knew they were going to have to replace the gear yoke but for a ferry flight, they decided to just rethread the axle, remove the breaking assembly and fly out with 75% brakes. I forget just how long it took but suspect about 3 days before it headed to Anchorage where it sat until we could get in a new gear yoke. Not an item an airline our size would normally have in inventory.
Once the aircraft was secured, I used the time to invite the children in the schools in Barrow to take a walk through and see what a big airplane was like. Good way to meet single teachers I was told. Most kids already know what the Cessnas and Beavers were like of course.
On this inbound 737 flight it was no different. It looked like a normal landing and taxi back. As it left the runway onto an angled taxiway, the aircraft was headed more or less toward our terminal. I noted the outboard tire on the right main gear was leaning over at maybe 60 degrees or so. When it was parked, what I had seen was true so went over to an area where the Captain could see me and I pointed to the gear and motioned him down. Needless to say, one of the crew would have came down anyway though for the normal walkaround. It was on the side away from the deplaning passengers which helped.
There was a little smoke (or steam) from the right gear area.
It was unbelievable what we found.
The tire and rim had almost entirely came off the axle, all the brake disks and pads were pulled apart but all still on the axle. Needless to say, the brake on that wheel assembly would not work but there was no sign of oil leakage thank goodness. As I recall, our 737s had an A and B system for braking. One system operated one wheel on each side so on rollout, he had 75% braking and he didn't notice anything really wrong. A brake fire at Barrow could have been disastrous since there was no airport fire equipment. At least we had plenty of the good old blue fire extinguishers close by and everyone had been trained never to use a red extinguisher on a brake fire. Talk about an explosion.
The Captain immediately went inside and called our dispatcher in Anchorage and reported the problem. They scrounged up another 737 and crew to fly to Barrow (with a load of cargo of course) and complete the trip and bring in mechanics to take it apart and to find out what all would be needed.
Durring the entire repair process, the APU was left running to keep heat in the aircraft so it wouldn't freeze up. If I recall right, and I might be wrong, the cockpit crew stayed with the aircraft and the flight attendants went out on the first flight since we knew it would be a ferry flight.
What they found was that no grease had been applied to the outer bearing when the wheel assembly was removed and replaced for normal maintenance 4 cycles prior to the landing at Barrow. Never did hear what happened to the mechanic that signed it off. The bearing got so hot it seized to the washer which froze to the locking ring and broke off the lip that fit in the locking grove and than seized to the wheel nut and spun it off. That allowed the wheel assemble to have a head of it's own but at least it stayed on the truck.
Maintenance knew they were going to have to replace the gear yoke but for a ferry flight, they decided to just rethread the axle, remove the breaking assembly and fly out with 75% brakes. I forget just how long it took but suspect about 3 days before it headed to Anchorage where it sat until we could get in a new gear yoke. Not an item an airline our size would normally have in inventory.
Once the aircraft was secured, I used the time to invite the children in the schools in Barrow to take a walk through and see what a big airplane was like. Good way to meet single teachers I was told. Most kids already know what the Cessnas and Beavers were like of course.
