B1 belly landing.
 

Maybe a bit old,

At about 10 p.m. local time on May 8, 2006, a 7th Bomb Wing B-1B Lancer based at Dyess AFB, Texas, made a wheels-up belly landing on runway 31 at Diego Garcia, skidding 7,500 feet down the runway. The aircraft was landing at the end of an 11 hour ferry mission that started at Andersen AFB, Guam. During the landing, the B-1B caught fire and emergency crews extinguished the flames. The four-person aircrew escaped from the plane through the overhead escape hatch. The aircraft was finally removed from the runway 4 days later. The Air Force Accident Investigation concluded the pilots forgot to lower the landing gear. The USAF estimated the damage to the B-1B at $7.9 million, and the damage to the runway at $14,025. RBRM and those old SEABEES made one tough runway, that's for sure! For those of you who've never seen a $285,000,000.00 bomber on the deck, here she is:


http://www.zianet.com/tedmorris/dg/b-1b_recovery_1.jpg

http://www.zianet.com/tedmorris/dg/b-1b_recovery_9.jpg

http://www.zianet.com/tedmorris/dg/bombers4.html

Re: B1 belly landing.
 

Forgot?!:uhoh: I think that a sorry isn't going to be enough...
Another thing: i thought that modern planes tell you when to lower landing gear when your descending...

Re: B1 belly landing.
 

How can you forget to lower your gear? That should be routine, an , something you do without thinking.

Re: B1 belly landing.
 

you dont forget...there was something wrong...but the yanks dont want to look stupid..

Re: B1 belly landing.
 

"commence bombing run.."
'roger.. dropping bombs'
"wait! shit... I forgot to open the bay-doors!"

.. :p

Re: B1 belly landing.
 

You're right. We abslutly hate anything that might give the world the impression that we are anything but serious, atriculate, always learning students.

Which is why we invented MTV, MySpace, and the American Secondary Education system.

Re: B1 belly landing.
 

Even the small planes have a indicator witch tell you to lower your gear...How can you forget that in a $285,000,000.00 bomber?

Re: B1 belly landing.
 

Actually not really, when you are landing there is no little indicator that tells you to lower your gear. There are indicators telling you if it is up or down. Pilots have a lot of stuff to do when landing, and the copilot usually calls the checklist to double check, they don't just flip the lever let the gear come down and voila, but it is no excuse, the gear is on the landing checklist. I suppose the pilots didn't follow the checklist and forgot to do it, shit happens, too bad military pilots are the "best".

Re: B1 belly landing.
 

So forgetting to lower your landing gear when landing doesnt?

Re: B1 belly landing.
 

The thing is, everybody knows that americans can be a bit... shall we say, cofused...
But everybody also knows, or is told, that American equipment is the best stuff in the world. So when something like this happens, they try to blaim it on a human error, instead of on the oh so allmighty American technology. :p
I think...