B737-300
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 78
Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical
Flight Crew Landed in Emergency Condition; General Maintenance Action; General Declared Emergency
Aircraft
After engines started on pushback; the Captain called for takeoff flap setting of flaps 1. Had indication of amber LE Flaps Transit light with associated indication of #2 LE Slat in transit on overhead indicator. Contacted Maintenance and they had us cycle the flaps down to flaps 10. All indications returned to normal at flaps 10. Then Maintenance directed to bring flaps back to flaps 1. We no longer had the non-normal indication with flaps back at 1 and agreed with Maintenance that the problem had been corrected. All continued normally until immediately after rotation when the #2 LE Slat apparently blew up and we received a momentary (one second) Stall Warning (stick shaker) with the same associated #2 LE Slat In transit light on overhead and associated LE Flaps Transit amber light on the main panel. Captain maintained aircraft control and did not notice any rolling tendencies and focused on climbing to a safe altitude and maintaining aircraft control. While climbing (approximately through 800 FT AGL); all indications returned to normal. We continued the climb and elected to continue normal climbout and clean up procedures. Climb out; clean up; and cruises were uneventful. Both the Captain and First Officer reviewed associated non-normal procedures from the QRH. While we were no longer experiencing any non-normal indications; we considered the future landing and discussed the safest means of arriving safely. We both agreed that the possibility of the #2 LE Slat showing abnormal indications when configuring for landing or getting blown up on short final was a real possibility. Because of this; we elected to do execute the 'FLAP; LEADING EDGE: LE FLAPS TRANSIT' QRH procedure; which called for a flaps 15 landing. We declared an emergency with Approach Control and passed our intentions for landing in an abnormal configuration and they had emergency crews standing by. Landing and taxi back were safe and without incident.
Taking off with flaps 1 the LE Flap Transit light illuminated when we became airborne then the stick shaker activated. Airspeed was increasing and the flaps were retracted on schedule. The QRH was used to make a flaps 15 landing in case the LE Flaps were not working properly. The QRH dictated a maximum autobrake landing. I briefed the Flight Attendants on the situation and an abbreviated PA to let passengers know we were using a flap setting that required max autobraking and thus a shorter rollout than usual. We did declare an emergency as we were preparing to configure for landing. The landing was uneventful and we turned the aircraft over to Maintenance.
B737-300 flight crew experiences a LE Flap Transit light when the flaps are set after engine start. The flaps are cycled at the direction of maintenance and the light disappears; only to reappear at rotation causing a momentary stick shaker. The light disappears again prior to flap retraction and does not reappear again although the crew elects to make a precautionary emergency landing at destination using flaps 15 and Vref15 + 5 as the approach speed.