Just two days before the start of the Christmas holiday, a Delta Connection Bombardier CRJ-700 was forced to return to Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport
after experiencing landing gear issues following takeoff.
The aircraft involved in the incident is N717EV, a 22-year-old Bombardier CRJ-700 operated by SkyWest Airlines
, but flying under the Delta Connection (and previously the American Eagle
) brand. After a grounding of two and a half days, the aircraft was back in service, flying between Minneapolis and Bemidji Minnesota on December 25.
DL4273 to Brainerd
On December 22 at 09:42 local time, SkyWest Airlines flight 4273 (operating for Delta Connection) pushed back from gate A9 at Minneapolis St. Paul Int’l Airport following a 47-minute delay. Despite the delay, the flight lifted off from runway 12L at MSP on time at 10:11 in the morning.
When it came time to retract the gear on their Bombardier CRJ-700 aircraft, the pilots of the flight received what is known as a “gear disagreement”, during which the pilot’s cockpit instruments (for example, lights indicating the status of the landing gear) display different for each landing gear.
Photo: Markus Mainka | Shutterstock
As is common practice with a gear disagreement, the pilots of flight 4273 notified air traffic control of the issue and leveled off around 3,800 feet while they worked on checklists and tried to see if the issue was caused by faulty sensors or if there was a bigger problem afoot. In certain cases, a gear disagreement can be indicative of a dangerous problem on an aircraft such as a hydraulic fluid or leak.
If and when a problem does arise during their career, no pilot would ever want to put their aircraft and passengers at risk of an incident. With this in mind, the pilots of flight 4273 erred on the side of caution and made the decision to return to Minneapolis. Following this decision, they dialed squawk code 7700 into their transponder and declared an emergency.
After 15 minutes of vectoring, SkyWest Airlines flight 4273 touched down on runway 12R at MSP, bringing its passengers no closer to their destination of Brainerd than they had been just half an hour before.
CRJ-700 to the rescue
In order to allow maintenance crews sufficient time to find the cause of the fault on the aircraft that operated flight 4273, SkyWest Airlines arranged for another CRJ-700 to take the stranded passengers to Brainerd with a four-hour delay.
This raises the question of why SkyWest Airlines (and Delta Connection) even arranged for a replacement aircraft to fly the route in the first place, as the distance between Minneapolis and Brainerd (in the same state of Minnesota) is just 130 miles (~209 kilometers). Well within driving distance of a few charter buses.
The replacement aircraft that operated the delayed flight 4273 – a 9 year old CRJ-700 registered N768SK – had already been running behind schedule on its previous flight from Rhinelander, Wisconsin. Due to its acting as a replacement aircraft, N768SK ran the rest of its scheduled flights throughout the day behind schedule.
Photo: Austin Deppe | Shutterstock
Gear issues aren’t new to the CRJ-700
In 2021, PSA Airlines (a subsidiary of American Airlines) grounded their fleet of Bombardier CRJ 700 and CRJ 900 aircraft due to mechanical issues involving the landing gear door components on 230 of their aircraft. This resulted in numerous flight cancelations at American Airlines Charlotte Douglas International Airport hub.
It was later found that there were corroded parts on the nose wheels and gear of the grounded fleet of CRJ aircraft. What makes this case of a potential mechanical fault interesting is that it was one of the rare instances in which an airline self-reported an issue to a regulatory authority (PSA/American Airlines to the FAA) despite the threat of being penalized for the fault.
