A report of the landing incident involving a Talofa Airways aircraft on July 21 at Pago Pago International Airport gives the timeline of what happened and the response by the airport fire crash unit.
The July 29 report, which was submitted to the Federal Aviation Administration, was prepared by Tavita Fuimaono Airports Assistant Director of Port Administration.
It says that Talofa Airways Flight 511 landed on Runway 8/26 from Apia at 1:19 pm that day. The Airport Safety Operations Manager Te’i was on the apron with ground crews of Samoa Airways and Talofa Airways operating inter island flights.
Shortly after landing, ground crews advised safety officer Te’i that there may be something wrong with the flight, as passengers were disembarking the plant.
Talofa Airways ground crew approached Te’i if he could escort them to their aircraft on Runway 8/26, not knowing what had transpired.
“Upon arrival at the scene, Te’i witnessed that the aircraft nose gear collapsed on the runway and never retracted with nose gear still enclosed,” said the report.
He asked the pilot what happened and if he contacted the Common Traffic Advisory Frequency. According to the report, the pilot said he did not make a distress call on CTAF at all.
At that point, Safety Operations Manager Te’i “sized up the incident for injury or any fire on the aircraft, and none was noticed.”
At 1:22 pm, he called the Airport Law Enforcement Office dispatcher who responded to the scene at 1:24 pm. The dispatcher at the Airport Rescue and Fire Fighting (ARFF) was also contacted and arrived at the scene at 1:25 pm.
The report said all passengers were safely transported to the terminal, while ARFF stood by at the aircraft.
Airport Safety Operations and Airport Law Enforcement remained with the pilot and Talofa Airways ground crew to fix the aircraft nose gear on Runway 8/26.
“The Talofa Airways ground crew manually extended the aircraft nose gear and restarted the aircraft to proceed to the apron with an ARFF escort.”
At about 1:45 pm, Safety Operations Manager Te’i conducted a conditional inspection and found few debris from the aircraft with minor damage. There was no pavement damage to Runway 8/26, which was reopened for operations at 2 pm.
