Accidents
Wooden sticks eyed in GV crash
Wooden tongue depressors are implicated in the hard landing of a Gulfstream V last February 14 that drove the right main landing gear up through the wing,

Wooden tongue depressors are implicated in the hard landing of a Gulfstream V last February 14 that drove the right main landing gear up through the wing, causing substantial structural damage but no injuries.

According to the NTSB, maintenance workers at General Dynamics Aviation Services (formerly a Signature maintenance center) on West Palm Beach (Fla.) International Airport put these flat wooden sticks into the landing-gear squat switches to override their function, thus simulating a gear-up configuration while the airplane is on the ground. The use of tongue depressors to make the airplane “think it’s in the air is standard practice” in the maintenance industry, according to Gulfstream. Two other manufacturers confirmed that the use of such sticks for this purpose is “fairly common.”

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