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Concern over Landing Gear Problems with Aircraft Manufactured by Bombardier Aerospace

Over the past week, there have been two separate incidents involving landing gear failures in two separate aircraft manufactured by Bombardier Aerospace.  Fortunately, in both cases, there were no serious injuries or fatalities.  However, these incidents underscore a history of landing gear-related issues with the CRJ 200 Jets.

The first incident occurred last Saturday, when a Delta flight was forced to make an emergency landing at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York City.  The pilot reported to air traffic controllers that there was a problem with the landing gear.  According to the pilot, the landing gear failed to lower as scheduled, leading to an emergency landing.  Fortunately, there were no fatalities or injuries in this incident.  There were about 60 passengers on board the aircraft.

You could have dismissed that as a freak occurrence, except that exactly 3 days later on Tuesday, there was another similar incident, involving a Bombardier Aerospace aircraft in Milwaukee.  That aircraft, a SkyWest Airlines plane landed at Milwaukee’s General Mitchell International Airport after landing gear problems.  In that incident, one of the three landing gears on the aircraft failed to lower property.

It’s not just the fact that there have been two such adverse aviation safety incidents in the span of a week that should have California plane crash lawyers concerned.  It’s also the fact that the same aircraft manufactured by Bombardier Aerospace have been involved in several other such landing gear issues in recent years.  In December 2008, a Mesa Airlines CRJ 900 Jets landed at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport after landing gear problems.  In June 2009, a similar incident involving an Atlantic Southeast Airlines CRJ 200 was reported at Atlanta Hartsfield international Airport.  In May 2010, a landing gear problem forced a SkyWest Airlines flight to land at an airport in Ontario California.  Such incidents involving landing gear problems with Bombardier Aerospace aircraft have also been reported with airlines outside the country.  In April, there was a similar problem involving a South Africa Express CIG 200 Jet approaching the Windhoek Airport in Nairobi.

Some aviation safety experts believe that regional carriers are much more likely to experience <strong>landing gear problems</strong> than national carriers.  The incidences of malfunctioning of landing gear can increase when an airplane experiences multiple landings.  Regional carriers typically operate short haul flights, and a single plane may be expected to have several landings in a day.  In fact, claims of some regional carriers can have as many as 30 landings in a single day.  When you have these high numbers of landings every day, the incidences of malfunctioning increase.  It’s another pointer to the kinds of safety issues that regional carriers grapple with.  This sector of the aviation industry already faces its own unique challenges.  These factors have include lower pilot wages, inexperienced pilots, and lack of properly trained pilots.  All these factors have been linked to an increased risk of crashes with regional carriers.

The Reeves Law Group is a law firm with offices throughout California dedicated exclusively to the representation of personal injury victims, including victims of aviation accidents. Please visit our website at http://www.robertreeveslaw.com/. If you desire a free consultation on a personal injury matter, please call us at (800) 644-8000 or email us at contact@robertreeveslaw.com.

The Reeves Law Group is not representing any party in the matters discussed in this posting.

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