From The Rising Nepal (30 November 1978)
The time was 1633 GMT when RNAC Flight 619 roared off the runaway at Gauchar Airport. Turning to port, the aircraft came over Kathmandu city and then checked over the VOR beacon before heading eastward. Three hours of high drama would be enacted above the dark Kathmandu skies before the Boeing 727 would make a forced landing at Gauchar.
With much fanfare, the first Boeing of the airline had been christened the “Yeti”. But when it came to naming this second acquisition, it seems everybody’s imagination ran out. The plane, registered 9NABN, was called the “old new jet” because of its ancestry. But most people call it the “Yeti two”.
That night, the 23rd of November, Yeti two was bound for Hong Kong, with commander B.B. Shah at the helm and Capt. A.S. Tamang by his side. The first inkling of trouble arose soon after take-off, when the tail skid of the Boeing failed to retract. The tail skid is a metal arm at the tail of the aircraft, which prevents the fuselage from being damaged if the plane leaves the ground at too steep an angle.
Since the tail skid was operated by hydraulics like the wheels the pilot decided to “recycle” the whole system, in the hope that the skid might retract. It was during this operation, that the nose wheel of the Boeing failed to respond, and stayed up in the well.
A general alert was sounded at the airport, and the aircraft returned to circle over the valley. A half an hour later, the Captain’s worried voice came over the air, “Kathmandu Tower, uptill now only the front wheel had failed to come out with the manual gear extension. Now even the back right wheel is locked up.” With this announcement, the tension on the ground mounted considerably. It meant that the pilot would have to do a belly landing on the fuselage. Besides the grave danger to the souls-on-board, a belly landing would mean that the plane too would have to be written off as junk.
At this point, it was suggested that perhaps the jet should be diverted to Delhi where safety precautions may be better. But nobody seemed to be certain about the reception this troubled aircraft would receive at Delhi. Delhi might refuse to let it land and block their runaway.
In a little while, the pilot announced with obvious relief, that the back right wheel was now fully extended, leaving only the recalcitrant front wheels up in the well. Since the extent of the emergency was now considerably lessened, it was tacitly understood that the plane would not divert to Delhi or elsewhere.
Now a senior RNAC pilot and an engineer came to the tower to talk the Boeing down to the ground. The engineer suggested various means to get the front gear down but it was obvious that the pilots had tried everything in the book. The manual extension procedure involved turning the level two times to the right and five times anti-clockwise but even this was not working.
Now the Boeing was put through some intricate paces by the pilots. First they did a “missed approach”, so that the aircraft flew at a height of fifty feet, past the control tower. In the light of the taxi-way floodlights, the observers on the ground confirmed that the front wheel was not out.
Then, at the suggestion of the ground engineer, the plane did a touch-and-go landing. The pilots let the aircraft down very heavily upon the runaway, and then gunned the engines to take off into the night air.
The plane was deliberately brought down heavily, in the hope that the rough jerk may loosen the front wheels to fall with the help of gravity. When even this last resort failed, to produce results the pilot announced that now he would come in for final landing.
The pilots suggested that a section of the runaway be foamed. There was some initial confusion on the ground, because most of the carbon dioxide foam was under lock and key at the store. Soon, however, the foaming got underway at a brisk pace. it was decided to foam a section between the fourth and fifth taxi-ways, where the nose of the aircraft was expected to hit the ground. The foam on the ground is to help minimize fire hazard.
Meanwhile, it was almost two and a half hours since the Boeing had been circling over the Valley, a forlorn, wounded bird up on the sky. People who woke to the sound of jet engines in the night could see the navigation lights of the Boeing as it circled at eleven thousand feet. They knew something was amiss.
A suggestion was made from the ground, that on landing, the pilots should try to swerve the aircraft into the grass by the side of the runaway. However, the pilot decided against this idea because there was no rain, and the ground would be hard. And then again the foam laid on the runaway would have been of no use if he went off the tarmac. So he decided to stick to the middle of the runaway. The technique of landing without the nose wheel, is to keep the aircrafts nose up in the air till the last possible moment, till the speed reaches the minimum. Then the nose is let down, and the aircraft grinds to a halt. Such a forced landing is considerably easier for smaller craft. In fact, an IA Fokker Friendship had landed at Gauchar a couple of years ago, without its front wheels extended. But the case of a Boeing 727 is somewhat different; with its greater weight and momentum, a two-gear landing requires maximum skill and concentration.
Finally at about one A.M. local time, the foaming was complete, and the fire station reported that all emergency vehicles were in position. The control tower gave permission to the Boeing to come on approach on radial two zero one. Soon, the pilot reported that he was ten miles away at a height of nine thousand feet, and that he had the runway in sight. The ground control said that the surface wind was calm, and that he was cleared to land. Once again, the pilot spoke into the mike, “OK, Ramesh, this will be my finest landing of my career. Keep the beer ready, OK? I will come and have it.”
And he lived up to his word. The landing was probably the best in his career. He brought the aircraft down with pinpoint accuracy on Runway zero two. After touchdown, with the use of revers-thrust of the engines and the wing flaps, he kept the nose up till the very last. When the speed had run itself out, he gently let the nose down into the awaiting foam. The passengers were unharmed, and the plane itself got by with the minimum of damage on its body-work. In fact at the moment of going to press, Yeti Two is already Gorkhalis to Hong Kong back on its job, ferrying and Brunei.