COMMUTER ACFT HAS NO GEAR DOWN LIGHTS ON APCH. NOTIFIES TWR OF MISSED APCH THEN HAS TOTAL ELECTRICAL FAILURE. DIVERTS TO NEARBY GA ARPT.

1992-08 · NASA ASRS report 218028

Date: 1992-08 · Aircraft: Small Transport; Low Wing; 2 Recip Eng

Anomalies: aircraft-equipment-problem-critical

Synopsis

COMMUTER ACFT HAS NO GEAR DOWN LIGHTS ON APCH. NOTIFIES TWR OF MISSED APCH THEN HAS TOTAL ELECTRICAL FAILURE. DIVERTS TO NEARBY GA ARPT.

Narrative

FINAL APCH CTLR (133.05) RPTED RADIO TRANSMISSIONS WERE WEAK. THEN HE RPTED THAT TRANSPONDER HAD FAILED. SWITCHED RADIOS AND RECYCLED TRANSPONDER. CLRED FOR VISUAL APCH 9R KMIA BEHIND LGT. CTLR RPTED TRANSPONDER OUT AGAIN -- CONTACT THE TWR 123.90. TWR CLRED ME TO LAND 9R BEHIND TFC -- KEEP SPD UP FOR FOLLOWING TFC. KEPT APCH SPD UP (APPROX 140 KTS). LOWERED FLAPS 15 DEGS AND PUT GEAR DOWN ON SHORT FINAL; AFTER AIRSPD HAD BLED OFF TO VLO. NO GREEN DOWN AND LOCKED LIGHTS AT ALL. CONTINUED TO LOWER FLAPS ON SCHEDULE TO 45 DEGS; WHILE TESTING GEAR DOWN LIGHTS. OVER THE NUMBERS; UNABLE TO GET GEAR DOWN AND LOCKED INDICATION. ELECTED TO GAR AND EXECUTED A MISSED APCH FROM 50 FT AGL. RPTED TO TWR THAT WE WERE GOING AROUND. HE SAID 'SAY INTENTIONS.' I SAID WE HAVE AN INDICATION PROBLEM -- REQUEST R DOWNWIND 9R.' AT THIS POINT RADIOS WENT TOTALLY DEAD; FUEL GAUGES READ '0' AND I REALIZED WE HAD A TOTAL ELECTRICAL FAILURE. FLEW RWY HDG TO 1000 FT AGL; AND PROCEEDED VFR TO KTMB; A SMALL GA ARPT. WHILE ENRTE; TRIED RESETTING BOTH ALTERNATORS -- NO HELP. RAN MANUAL GEAR EXTENSION CHKLIST (ELECTRICAL GEAR); BRIEFED PAX (7) FOR POSSIBLE GEAR UP EMER LNDG; TRIED RADIOS AGAIN; SQUAWK 7700; RAN FLAPS UP LNDG CHKLIST AND EXECUTED VISUAL APCH 9R KTMB. SAW AN SMA ON FINAL AND EXECUTED A 360 DEG TURN FOR SPACING. ON FINAL; I ROCKED WINGS TO ALERT KTMB TWR; AND I RECEIVED GREEN LIGHT SIGNALS -- CLR TO LAND. ACCOMPLISHED '0' FLAP LNDG. GEAR WAS DOWN! A FO/COPLT WOULD HAVE BEEN A HELP. A LITTLE MIRROR ON ENG COWL TO SHOW NOSE GEAR WOULD HAVE HELPED. IF ALTERNATOR FAILURE/ANNUNCIATOR LOW VOLTAGE LIGHTS WOULD HAVE WORKED I WOULD HAVE BEEN WARNED (ALTERNATOR CIRCUIT BREAKERS WERE BOTH FOUND TO BE POPPED; BATTERY LOW ON WATER; L ALTERNATOR WIRE BROKEN).

Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.

Loading the flight search…

Frequently asked questions

How do I search flights by aircraft type on FlightFinder?

Pick an aircraft model — Boeing 737, Airbus A320, A380, Boeing 787 Dreamliner and more — enter your origin airport, and FlightFinder shows every route that plane flies from there with live fares.

Which aircraft types can I filter by?

We support Boeing 737/747/757/767/777/787, the full Airbus A220/A319/A320/A321/A330/A340/A350/A380 family, Embraer E170/E175/E190/E195, Bombardier CRJ and Dash 8, and the ATR 42/72 turboprops.

Is FlightFinder free to use?

Search and schedules are free. Pro ($4.99/month, $39/year, or $99 one-time lifetime) unlocks the enriched flight card — on-time stats, CO₂ per passenger, amenities, live gate & weather — plus My Trips with push alerts.

Where does the route data come from?

Live schedules come from Amadeus, AeroDataBox and Travelpayouts. Observed routes (which aircraft actually flew a given city pair) are crowdsourced from adsb.lol ADS-B data under the Open Database License.