MD-83
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Workload; Situational Awareness; Troubleshooting
Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe; Conflict Ground Conflict; Less Severe; Inflight Event / Encounter Weather / Turbulence
Flight Crew Diverted; Flight Crew Executed Go Around / Missed Approach; Flight Crew Overcame Equipment Problem; Flight Crew Landed in Emergency Condition; General Declared Emergency; General Maintenance Action
Aircraft; Weather
During climb; both the autopilot and autothrottles disconnected. We were IMC in rain showers. Convective weather was in the area. The aircraft began un-commanded yaw oscillations. Most [of the] Digital Flight Guidance System (DFGS) froze at the settings; which were displayed at the time of disconnect. Only the course setting and VHF NAV settings were operational. Circuit breaker C-18 was popped. We declared an emergency and requested vectors to the nearest suitable airport with VFR conditions. Considering weather and controllability issues; neither of us felt return to ZZZ was prudent. ATC gave us vectors to ZZZ1. We executed the following checklists: AIRPLANE OSCILLATING OR DISPLACED IN YAW; RUDDER CONTROL MANUAL; EMERGENCY LANDING; MECHANICAL CHECKLIST; NORMAL CHECKLIST LANDING GEAR HANDLE DOWN WITH ONE OR MORE RED LIGHTS ILLUMINATED. We briefed the flight attendants. We also contacted Dispatch and made PA to the passengers. On final; we had 3 red gear indication lights. The nose gear indication pin indicated normal extension. We executed a go-around in order to run the QRH GEAR EXTENSION checklist. During the go-around; the Tower advised us that the gear appeared down. After running the QRH; gear indications became green. We landed XXR and stopped on the runway. Air Field Rescue and Fire Fighters (ARFF) inspected the plane. Company mechanics stowed the gear doors; pinned the gear and towed us to the terminal. I made several PA's to the passengers to advise them of the aircraft status while we were having the mechanics prepare to tow the plane. On a separate note; a business jet appeared to make an approach and go around to our Runway XXR while we were disabled on the runway. As we were getting the gear pinned; Airport OPS ONE spotted the jet and radioed the Tower. The Tower responded that the jet was going around. The jet indicated 100 feet above the runway on our TCAS as he flew past us.
We departed late morning. As we were on our climb; the cockpit door flung open; as the number 1 Flight Attendant I did my best to reach over and close the door; I remembered I did check it before we started our demo. As we climbed; the Captain instructed me to stay seated. I watched as 1st class was concerning themselves with cockpit visibility. I watched the First Officer struggle a bit with the yoke; he seem to be struggling with holding it steady; his entire arm was fully shaking a lot. The conversation between the Captain and First Officer and the only words I could hear were 'flight panel' and 'not working'. I continued to watch the First Officer struggle with the yoke at one point the Captain stood up when it was safe to shut the door. In my mind as I sat in my jump seat I wondered if the cockpit door flinging open had anything to do with the flight panel not working it could have been possible the relay switch was reset. It felt as though we had already passed 10;000 but I hadn't received any chime yet; I went ahead and announced my usual 10;000 PA to our passengers. Within seconds of hanging up three times heard over the PA. My initial thought was that my number three Flight Attendant; a new hire FA (who this was his 1st flight ever as a flight attendant) had inadvertently pushed the third chime by accident to communicate me in the front. When I picked up the receiver is our Captain. He told me that we are experiencing flight control problem and a possible emergency landing was to happen. I asked for TEST information and was ready to write it down. Flight Control Problem Landing; 15 min till landing; normal landing anticipated no evacuation signal easy victor. Within a few seconds of hanging up my crew was in the galley in first class to discuss that we had all heard. The first step that we took was to synchronize our watches to exactly 12 noon; next step I explained that securing our cabin and our passengers and to do our 30 second review and go through our evacuation commands in the event need to evacuate. Since no evacuation was necessary we proceeded to secure the cabin. I took my jumpseat immediately after securing the cabin. The Captain informed the passengers of the diversion due to flight instrument computer not working right. He also let them know it would be approximately 15 minutes to landing. He instructed the passengers to closely listen to our commands. We sat in our jump seats past 15 and it didn't seem as though we were descending. I hesitated calling the pilots because I knew we were in a critical phase and so I sat patiently in my jumpseat with very small faint view of the land below us. At one point I did hear the landing gear and it felt as though we were descending and in the cockpit where sirens were going off in addition to the sirens 'low nose gear' was being announced by the computer in the flight deck. It was repeatedly on for about 2 minutes. Then sirens kept sounding for 5 minutes or longer. The landing gear retracted and we were no longer descending. Still no communication from the cockpit. We seem to be in a holding pattern approximately 30 minutes. Again I hesitated calling the cockpit to get an update as to why he had gone past his approximate landing time of 15 minutes. Closer to forty minutes later I felt the landing gear drop again and a descent began to happen. I did hear sirens again. We landed at seven minutes later. A standard normal landing. Between the time the Captain said he would be having an emergency landing and are landing actually happening a lot of swaying of the aircraft. Once we landed the Captain came on speaker and let us know if would be sitting here until a tow got here to pull us to the gate. He turned ON the APU immediately. I kept him informed of passengers needing to use the restroom so he allowed passengers to use the restroom until the tow arrived. The tow arrived and 10 minutes later we at the gate and got my first contact with the Captain. Once the passengers were off we were escorted to Maintenance Operations via ramp we settled in and waited for any news from the schedule Maintenance and the pilots were involved in conversations about items. The pilots left for a few moments to get lunch. In their absence a Maintenance guy who had just signed in and had worked on our aircraft said that the brake pads were destroyed and continued to say that it was lucky we even made it as far as we did. The pilots were not present here but the cabin crew was. I do not know his name. At the very moment; another Maintenance person had to let us know we need to call scheduling because we had been reassigned. Moments later when the pilot returned from getting lunch they said we need to call Crew Scheduling (CS) as they were looking for us. [The flight crew said] to me that [I was] laying over still on a four-day trip; but he also informed me paraphrase [that a] flight was headed back to our domicile with possible jump seats for us to get back home; and that I should take that opportunity since I still very shaken up. As the number one in charge I called Crew Scheduling as we walked together as a crew. I was on hold for five minutes when someone answered and put me back on hold with a different CS person he exactly what we had just gone through he was concerned about the new Flight Attendant onboard that experienced this emergency landing. I reassured him he and all of us were shaken up but OK for now. I asked him what our status was; I was told to call CS; we would like to be released from being reassigned considering the circumstances that we just were in and we were standing in front of the gate that was headed back to our crew base with three available jumpseats. He told me to take that flight home with our crew.My biggest take-away: Communication is key. The Captain advised us 15 minutes until landing; the actual time was 45 minutes. We the crew sat in our jumpseats in complete silence with no communication from the cockpit; not even each other as we didn't want to muddle the communication they were having with the Tower. It was perhaps the most 'damaging' and biggest contributors to stress and anxiety. I do professionally understand that the pilots were task oriented but an update would have been very much helpful and appreciated. Please understand their level of professionalism was outstanding and nothing short of being in excellence throughout our trip together.
A MD-83 Digital Flight Guidance System (DFGS) circuit breaker opened after takeoff; IMC near convective weather. With all DFGS system indications frozen and contending with uncommanded yaw oscillations; the crew declared an emergency and diverted to a nearby VMC airport where an emergency landing was completed after a go-around for unsafe gear.