EDMONTON – The Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB) determined vibrations from a failed tire contributed to an extremely rough landing at the international airport Nov. 6, 2014.
The flight left Calgary and was headed for Grande Prairie with 71 passengers and four crew members.
The TSB released its investigation report into the frightening incident Wednesday.
It found shaking from a failed tire led to the collapse of the plane’s right main landing gear. Three passengers suffered minor injuries when Jazz Aviation flight 8481 made an emergency landing in Edmonton. When the plane touched down, the propeller blades on the right side sheared off on impact and one of the blades smashed through the cabin wall.
“All of a sudden I got hit in the head,” Christina Kurylo, who was on the plane, said.
“It was pretty confusing for me. It’s bits and pieces for me after that.”
Kurylo was one of five Grande Prairie radio station employees on the plane. She was sitting in row seven when part of one of the plane’s propellers smashed through the window, narrowly missing her face.
“The propeller, obviously that didn’t hit her, but the whole inside wall of the plane blew out so she had fibreglass and everything all embedded in her skin,” said her co-worker Melissa Menard who was also on the plane.
READ MORE: ‘The whole inside wall of the plane blew out’ as propeller pierces window in rough landing
The investigation found there was no fire after the plane landed.
“A high rotational imbalance was created on the tire that failed during takeoff, resulting in a significant vibration as the tire began to spin up during touchdown,” the investigation found.
“As this vibration was the same or very close to one of the natural frequencies of the right main landing gear, it falsely triggered a sensor within the main landing gear. This resulted in a reduction of hydraulic pressure to the locking mechanism of the landing gear. In this condition, the excessive vibration then caused the mechanical locking system to release, leading the landing gear to collapse. The investigation concluded that the lack of specific requirements for dynamic vibration testing of aircraft components during certification was a risk factor, as similar systems could fail during high-vibration conditions.”
After the incident, Jazz Aviation decided not to use retreaded tires on the main landing gear of its DHC-8-402 fleet anymore.
The airline also made changes to that fleet’s operating procedures to reduce stress on the main landing gear tires.
Other operators using the same aircraft have started using similar procedures to reduce tire stress.
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