Published Wednesday, March 15, 2000, in the San Jose Mercury News

Airline starts probe of what caused jet landing gear to fail

SAN FRANCISCO -- Authorities were investigating Tuesday why the right landing gear of a Delta Air Lines passenger plane failed to retract properly, forcing the pilots to make a dramatic landing that damaged a wing. Flight 1972 was guided into the emergency landing Monday night at San Francisco International Airport. The 79 passengers and seven crew members were not injured.

By mid-morning Tuesday, the Boeing 727-200 had been taken to a hangar where officials began their investigation into what caused the malfunction.

The plane, acquired by Delta in August 1978, had been cleared during a routine maintenance check last Wednesday and had undergone extensive maintenance last November, Delta officials said. There were no indications on either check of landing gear problems, the officials said.

The plane was able to land because there is landing gear for the nose and left wing. But as it came down, its right wing scraped the runway and crumpled at the end. Passengers exited by an inflatable slide.

``You could see that there were sparks coming off the wing's tip,'' passenger Joe Burschinger of Los Angeles told the San Francisco Examiner. ``I've got to tell you: I've had rougher landings on normal flights.''

http://www.mercurycenter.com/premium/local/docs/bay15f.htm

-- Carl Jenkins (Somewherepress@aol.com), March 15, 2000