Details have emerged of incidents on flights between Canberra and Sydney in which parts of the hydraulic system that control a plane's landing wheels failed.
Qantas has confirmed a hydraulic pump failed on the 11.45am flight from Canberra to Sydney on Australia Day this year. The group general manager for regional services, Narendra Kumar, told The Canberra Times the plane's back-up power was activated and the aircraft landed in Sydney normally.
The pump was replaced, but on the next flight of the Dash 8-400 from Sydney to Canberra the following morning air was detected in the hydraulic system. On its next flight to Sydney the Dash 8-400 still had air in its hydraulic system. That meant the landing gear doors did not close once again. A further attempt to remove the air on its arrival in Sydney was apparently successful.
The Dash 8-400 made several more flights that day without incident, until the 5.20pm flight to Canberra on which the landing gear doors were slow to close. The aircraft was again inspected and cleared to resume service.
It has operated since on the Canberra to Sydney route without incident.
In March, the airline introduced a new routine inspection procedure for all Dash 8-400 hydraulic pumps and has since had no failures.