No one was injured today when an AIR NELSON Dash 8-300 had to make an emergency landing after the nose gear failed to deploy. Flight 8306 was on Domestic Service from Hamilton to Wellington, New Zealand, on behalf of AIR NEW ZEALAND, with 41 passengers and 3 crew members onboard. The Dash was on approach to Wellington, when the crew received an unsafe nose gear indication after lowering the landing gear. The aircraft was then diverted to Blenheim, where they performed a low fly-over of the tower, which confirmed that the nose gear was not down. After working the checklists in an attempt to get the gear down and locked, at 2:45pm, the crew brought the aircraft in for a landing with the nose gear still retracted. The Dash skidded to a halt on the runway, about 45 minutes after diverting from Wellington. Passengers and crew were then assisted off the aircraft by Emergency Services. Hundreds of onlookers, who had gathered around the Airport to watch the landing, clapped as the plane came to a halt. The New Zealand Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has announced that they will investigate the accident. In a statement, Air New Zealand said it would seek permission from the CAA to fly the damaged Q300 with its landing gear locked in place so the aircraft can be repaired. Engineers are still inspecting the aircraft to determine if it can be moved to Air Nelson's main engineering base at Nelson Airport for repairs and further inspections. "A special flight permit will be sought from the aircraft manufacturer Bombardier and the New Zealand Civil Aviation Authority to fly it to Nelson with landing gear locked in place," said a statement from ANZ. The carrier expects to move the aircraft within the next 36 hours.
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