Crash at Piarco International

[Goose]

Crash Landing at Piarco International Airport

Today 19/4/05 a DASH 8-300 aircraft operated by Tobago Express made an emergency landing at Piarco International Airport TTPP. The aircraft is operated on the commuter route between Trinidad and Tobago in the Caribbean. On commencing approach into Crown Point International TTCP in Tobago the flight crew discovered that the nose gear failed to come down. All attempts to lower the gear, including use of the manual back up failed. The aircraft returned to Piarco in Trinidad to make an emergency landing. The aircraft 9Y-WIT landed safely without injury to any passengers.

According to regulations the type of the aircraft involved in the accident, flown by the airline involved in the accident is to be grounded pending the outcome of the investigation. Unfortunately the DASH-8 is the only type flown by the airline and thus operations have been suspended.

[Webmaster]

Luckily nobody was hurt.

Unfortunately the DASH-8 is the only type flown by the airline and thus operations have been suspended.

Ouch! That's going to hurt, and times are not that great for airlines today anyway. Hopefully the investigation will be finished quickly. Nose-gear failures are common though and there are standard procedures for the pilot to take. So I would think, the cause of the failure can be found without too much delay. For the airline, I suppose and hope it isn't a construction or design failure, and for the people involved I hope it isn't human error either.

[Goose]

Yes I do hope the investigation is over soon. The airline can' t sustain losses for very long. This is also going to affect the number of passeger in times to come.  A small plus is that some people would prefer to take private flight with me in my C172 while there is a lack of flights to Tobago.

[Webmaster]

Hahaha  big business for you!

[Goose]

Tobago Express (TabEx) has resumed flights, although not their full schedule. There has been no report as to the findings of the investigation yet though. I believe they just examined the other aircraft in the fleet and now they're gonna concentrate on the damaged one fully.