Q400
Air Traffic Control Fully Certified
ATC Issue All Types; Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical
General Declared Emergency
Aircraft; Procedure; Human Factors; Company Policy
A Dash 8 was cleared for Visual Approach to Runway 28 and switched to Tower. Tower called me and advised that the Dash 8 had faulty gear indications and would be going around. I climbed the Dash 8 to 4;000 and vectored them around for 20 minutes or so before they declared an emergency. I had four other aircraft to vector for sequence before getting the Dash 8 in; along with six overflights and one pointout. The Dash 8 landed Runway 28 without incident. I was later informed by Local Controller that it appeared the Dash 8's main gear was not locked down.
We started the approach the First Officer asked for the gear down. After placing the gear in the down position and completing the flow; I look up and observed that I did not have three green lights. The nose wheel light was not illuminated. I told the First Officer that nose light was not green and that I was going to recycle the gear again. After cycling the gear; the nose was still not green. We canceled the approach clearance and flew a low approach for the Tower to take a look. The Controller told us that he could see the nose gear but it did not look fully extended. We executed the go around and climbed to 4;000 FT with a turn to the right. This put us in the bottom layer of the cloud level north of the airport. I sent a message to Dispatch telling them that we had a gear issue. I pulled the QRH and found the gear section. I started going through the chapter looking for a checklist that would best fit this problem. After completing the search; the only checklist that we found was the Alternate Landing Gear Extension. I discussed this with the First Officer and we decided this was the best course of action. I read the checklist out loud from start to finish before swapping controls. We swapped controls and I became the pilot flying. The First Officer went through the gear chapter making sure that I did not miss anything. We decided to start the checklist for the manual extension of the gear. At this time; I declared the emergency with ATC and give them all of our information. We had made it through half of the manual gear extension checklist when we received the first ACARS from the company. We completed the checklist and I responded to the company that we have three green in the floor. After completing the rest of the other checklists; we started the vectors to the runway. We were cleared for the visual for Runway 28. I followed the glide slope down and landed flaps 35. I rolled to the end of the runway and exited to the right to clear the runway. No other problems were encountered during these procedures. After talking with Dispatch on the phone; we decided to deplane on the taxiway and move the passengers to the terminal via bus. I received a phone call from the company while I was on the phone with Dispatch. The company wanted to know what happen and commenced to telling me what I should have done and should not have done while I still had passengers on my aircraft and emergency crews around me. Yes I did make a mistake because I missed a checklist for gear indication problems. But the time to discuss this was not while I am still dealing with passengers; ground crews and emergency response crews. As the pilot in command I did what I thought was right and the safest course of action at the time of the event.
TRACON Controller handled an aircraft with gear problems. A go around was initiated. A flight crew reporter also provided additional perspectives regarding this incident.