On approach to Luxembourg Findel Airport (LUX), a Cargolux Boeing 747-8F, registered as LX-VCB, was forced to declare an emergency after the crew got a warning that the aircraft’s landing gear had not properly deployed.
On May 20, 2023, while operating flight CV5486 from Chicago O’Hare International Airport (ORD), the Boeing 747-8F was descending to land at LUX when the crew received a message on the Engine-indicating and crew-alerting system (EICAS) alerting them that the landing gear had not deployed properly.
“They executed a low fly past to confirm that all gears were down. The aircraft landed safely with the emergency services on hand,” Cargolux said in a statement released on May 20, 2023.
According to data from Flightradar24.com, the crew chose to discontinue the landing attempt and circle about LUX in a holding pattern at 3,900 feet around 11:30 am local time (UTC +2).
In order for Air Traffic Control (ATC) to determine whether the landing gear had been deployed before attempting to land again at 11:47 a.m. local time (UTC +2), the Cargolux pilots then conducted the low fly-past.
The Boeing 747-8F was successfully landed at the airport at 12 o’clock local time (UTC +2) after the crew squawked the code for a general emergency, 7700, just before touching down at LUX at 11:57 local time (UTC +2).
Another Cargolux Boeing 747F, a -400F, lost its right-body bogie after detaching after landing at LUX on May 14, 2023.
The airplane came to a controlled stop without any injuries either on board or on the ground, despite losing its landing gear bogie.
After the incident, the LUX operator closed the runway before starting operations again on May 15, 2023.
