20060620030979A

(-23) On June 20, 2006, American airlines aircraft, N961TW a DC-9-82, on a flight from los angeles, CA (lax) to O'Hare international airport (ord), Chicago IL, declared an emergency due to the fact that the nose landing gear would not extend out of the nose wheel well. The flight crew landed the aircraft on runway 14R, at ord. The aircraft sustained damage to the nose gear doors, the lower fuselage, and several antennas on the belly of the aircraft. Inspectors from the O'Hare flight standards district office (ord-fsdo) arrived on the scene at 07:25. American airlines management personnel were at the aircraft, when we arrived. All the passengers and the flight crew had left the scene prior to our arrival. American's recovery team installed lifting equipment and raised the forward fuselage and installed a fuselage jack for stability. As the nose was raised, the nose gear doors came open and nose landing gear partially came out of the wheel well. It was prevented from fully extending by a broken spray deflector that was obstructing the nose wheels. The nose gear was eventually lowered and the aircraft was towed to the American airlines hangar. On June 21, 2006, FAA inspectors went to the American airlines hangar and talked to the maintenance manager. The current focus of the cause of this occurrence is possibly due to the use of a new type of push-back tug in lax, which picks up the nose gear for push-back. It is being investigated whether the use of the new tug may have damaged the spray deflector, which caused the nose landing gear to extend.