# How significant is the damage stemming from an airliner making a belly landing without wheels? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 24, 2024, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-significant-is-the-damage-stemming-from-an-airliner-making-a-belly-landing-without-wheels/1002006 "2024-05-24T03:19:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Asuka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@Asuka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asuka)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2024, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-significant-is-the-damage-stemming-from-an-airliner-making-a-belly-landing-without-wheels/1002006/21 "2024-05-25T22:47:57Z")
I watched an Air Crash Investigation about it, basically a single red light just turned on to display a fault but the crew couldn’t figure out what the fault was because nothing seemed wrong, and they were so distracted trying to figure out the cause of the little red light they drifted too far down and hit the ground. Then when the crash was investigated turns out the bulb had just burned out. ---
**Author:** ![Pardel-Lux](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pardel-lux/32/20182_2.png) [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2024, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-significant-is-the-damage-stemming-from-an-airliner-making-a-belly-landing-without-wheels/1002006/22 "2024-05-25T23:03:08Z")
That is not what somebody with flight angst wants to hear. Give him a link to the best crashes and near misses [instead](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ba5Hz0yuFM). He’ll thank you! 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2024, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-significant-is-the-damage-stemming-from-an-airliner-making-a-belly-landing-without-wheels/1002006/23 "2024-05-25T23:36:46Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > Yeah, I was gonna say: you never hear about all the planes that land without incident. It’s ridiculous the way they report on accidents without mentioning the hundreds or thousands of other flights that were completed safely that day. 🤔 ---
**Author:** ![Marvin\_the\_Martian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/marvin_the_martian/32/2898_2.png) [@Marvin\_the\_Martian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marvin_the_Martian)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2024, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-significant-is-the-damage-stemming-from-an-airliner-making-a-belly-landing-without-wheels/1002006/24 "2024-05-26T13:39:10Z")
We got the bubble-headed-bleach-blond Who comes on at five Ten thousand safe landings so no gleam in her eye. It’s boring when nobody dies It’s not dirty laundry ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2024, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-significant-is-the-damage-stemming-from-an-airliner-making-a-belly-landing-without-wheels/1002006/25 "2024-05-26T14:05:44Z")
> [@Caribbean\_cruiser](#): > > We see these belly landings every couple months Am I the only one who isn’t seeing news about belly landings every couple of months? I can’t even think of any belly landing I’ve seen in years, except maybe some YouTube short of an old accident of a student craft in my feed. Did something just recently happen? ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2024, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-significant-is-the-damage-stemming-from-an-airliner-making-a-belly-landing-without-wheels/1002006/26 "2024-05-26T14:26:23Z")
Same. As i said above, i thought they were really rare. ---
**Author:** ![mnemosyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@mnemosyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mnemosyne)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2024, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-significant-is-the-damage-stemming-from-an-airliner-making-a-belly-landing-without-wheels/1002006/27 "2024-05-26T15:56:11Z")
Landing gear failure is a forseeable event and the consequences of it are mitigated in the overall aircraft design. The gear system on most planes I know has an emergency manual release, if the hydraulic system fails. Gears are hydraulically locked in the stowed position, and it’s the release of the pressure that drops them (in other words, the gear is actively held up, and it’s failure position would be deployed). Planes are _designed_ to be able to land on their belly. The structure is strong enough to handle it, there’s a pilot procedure for a gear up landing or gear collapse event, and pilots train for this scenario. Such an event is often classified as an “incident” and not an “accident” unless the aircraft is significantly damaged and/or there are severe casualties. The term “crash” doesn’t really figure in the industry. The aircraft would have to undergo a specific inspection procedure, including analysis of the flight data recorders to determine the loads the airframe experienced. Nondestructive testing (x-ray, Eddy current) of the damaged areas (belly, wingtips, whatever) and various other identified critical structures will occur to detect cracks, warping, other issues not visible to the naked eye. This is typically done with the OEM’s involvement; there are dedicated teams of structural engineers who work in fleet support who have access to all the certification data and can determine what is and what is not acceptable/repairable in terms of damage. If the damage isn’t excessive to the point of writing off the plane, it will get repaired. New frames, new stringers, new skins, doublers and other repair structures as needed. The aircraft will be returned to an airworthy state via the repair and the associated _airworthiness limitations_ the repair generates. These limitations consist of new/additional/more frequent specific zonal inspections and maintenance tasks and are legally part of that airframe’s approved configuration. Say a given area of skin would normally need an inspection every 4 years for regular maintenance, after the repair it may need to be inspected every 2 years and done using a more precise technique due to the presence of a doubler. Once all of that repair and airworthiness limitations are approved, the aircraft can be given a new certificate of airworthiness and be returned to service. ---
**Author:** ![md-2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9d8465/32.png) [@md-2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md-2000)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2024, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-significant-is-the-damage-stemming-from-an-airliner-making-a-belly-landing-without-wheels/1002006/28 "2024-05-26T18:44:56Z")
I recall a belly landing on a road by a small aircraft - they had a problem, decided to put down on a minor highway. They forgot about the landing gear in the heat of the moment. Turns out those smaller planes (6-seater? 8-seater?) low wing anyway, have metal strips along the bottom just for that. They scraped but the lower fuselage and wing bottoms were OK, the propeller needed replacing (tips bent) and that was it. ---
**Author:** ![velomont](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/8491ac/32.png) [@velomont](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/velomont)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2024, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-significant-is-the-damage-stemming-from-an-airliner-making-a-belly-landing-without-wheels/1002006/29 "2024-05-26T20:32:47Z")
> [@md-2000](#): > > I recall a belly landing on a road by a small aircraft In WW II my dad was a flying instructor in Harvard trainers (North American T-6 Texan ([North American T-6 Texan - Wikipedia](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_T-6_Texan))) and had a fuel line break outside of Ottawa and belly landed in a farmer’s field near Richmond Ontario. ---
**Author:** ![jacobsta811](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jacobsta811/32/2893_2.png) [@jacobsta811](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jacobsta811)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2024, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-significant-is-the-damage-stemming-from-an-airliner-making-a-belly-landing-without-wheels/1002006/30 "2024-05-26T20:56:29Z")
Sure you’re talking about the Tristar crash with the burned out gear light, Eastern Air Lines 401: > **[Eastern Air Lines Flight 401](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Air_Lines_Flight_401)** > > Eastern Air Lines Flight 401 was a scheduled flight from New York JFK to Miami. Shortly before midnight on December 29, 1972, the Lockheed L-1011-1 TriStar crashed into the Florida Everglades, causing 101 total fatalities. All three cockpit crew members, two of the 10 flight attendants, and 96 of the 163 passengers were killed; 75 people survived. > The crash occurred while the entire flight crew were preoccupied with a burnt-out landing gear indicator light. The captain bumped the control yoke ... They spent so much time fiddling with the light they just let the plane drift into the ground. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-significant-is-the-damage-stemming-from-an-airliner-making-a-belly-landing-without-wheels/1002006.md?page=1)