What happened
On April 30, 2016, an Air Vallee flight, operating as RVL233, departed from Rimini airport carrying 18 passengers and 3 crew members. While performing the final approach to Catania airport using the ILS Z RWY 08, the crew identified an issue with the nose landing gear indication, which appeared amber while the main gear lights remained green. To verify the gear's status, the crew decided to conduct a low pass over the runway to receive visual confirmation from the control tower.
During this low pass, air traffic control notified the crew that the nose gear had not extended, even though the nose gear compartment doors had opened. Following this observation, all landing gear lights on the flight deck went dark. The aircraft proceeded to the INDAX waypoint to hold at 3,000 feet. During this period, the crew attempted both the abnormal procedures for an unsafe nose gear and the alternate down procedures, but neither attempt successfully deployed the gear.
In an effort to resolve the situation, the crew declared an emergency and performed a leveled 2G turn to attempt gear deployment, which also failed. After communicating their fuel status and passenger count to air traffic services, the crew executed a VOR procedure for RWY26 followed by a second low pass. The aircraft eventually returned for an ILS approach to RWY 08. The Fokker F27, registration SE-LEZ, landed at 09:34 hrs with the main gear locked but the nose gear in the up position and the doors open. The aircraft struck the ground with the nose gear retracted, only making contact once the speed had decreased sufficiently. Although some passengers were taken to the emergency room for evaluation, there were 0 fatalities and 0 injuries reported from the event. All occupants disembarked safely after the aircraft stopped on the runway.
Findings
- The nose landing gear failed to extend despite the compartment doors opening.
- Manual deployment attempts, including a 2G maneuver, were unsuccessful.