RFT 555: December Gear Problems
All December proceeds from the sale of Hamfist novels and the proceeds from the audiobook Hamfist Over The Trail will be donated to charity to help the victims of the tragic midwest tornadoes.
December has a bad reputation for airline landing gear accidents. As an airline Captain, during every December flight I would brief my crew that, in the event of a landing gear indication problem, we would not delay the landing to trouble-shoot our issue. There is no record of airline fatalities due to LANDING the airplane with a gear problem, but 114 passengers and crew lost their lives from accidents in which airline crews attempted to deal with unsafe landing gear indications. All three of these accidents occurred in the month of December.
The first was Eastern Airlines Flight 401, which occurred on December 29, 1972.
Eastern Airlines 401 accident report
The next accident was United Airlines Flight 2860, on December 28, 1977.
United Airlines 2860 accident report
The most recent was United Airlines flight 173, on December 28, 1978.
United Airlines 173 accident report