Narrative:

On climbout at approximately 6000 MSL; I noticed the red nose gear (in transit) light illuminated. The first officer and I went to the QRH and noticed the only item in the QRH on a gear light is the statement; 'insure the gear handle is properly seated.' it was but the light stayed on. We slowed to 270 or less and checked the gear circuit breakers and the gear viewer. Neither revealed anything significant. We slowed; asked for a climb; and asked dispatch and maintenance control to see if there was anything else we needed to do. At about this time; while the first officer was looking at the gear viewer the mode control panel (MCP) locked up. With the gear horn going off almost constantly and all the MCP lights flashing 8's and 0's the maintenance controller recognized the issue over the radio while I was talking with dispatch. They told us to go to the MCP lockup checklist which was a lucky break because neither I nor the first officer had ever heard of this. With this issue the first officer and I both agreed (we were thinking a chain of events) that we might not be able to slow; so we declared an emergency. We told dispatch; the flight attendants; and the passengers we were diverting in case the gear did not come down (long runway and poor weather helped rule out ZZZ1 and ZZZ). After about 15 minutes of hand flying and yelling over the altitude alert the first officer found the second circuit breaker for the MCP and we decided to head to ZZZ since the last thing the mechanic said about the gear was that he would alert ZZZ we were on the way. We informed dispatch; the crew; and center of our intentions and kept the emergency on until we got three green lights on the gear about 25 miles out of ZZZ. We had the emergency equipment follow us in and then proceeded to talk with the field manager about the emergency and the chief pilot on duty convincing him we were fit to continue our trip. After shutting the airplane down and sending the first officer over to the next airplane; I stopped and got food for the crew since we were planning on eating in ZZZ. On pushback and start with both engines running off the gate the first officer asked me what I put in the forms of the grounded airplane. After a few expletives I called maintenance who had actually met us at the gate and told them that I had forgotten to write up the grounded aircraft. The mechanic assured me they would handle it and I followed up the next morning with a phone call to maintenance to make sure it had been done and the supervisor called me back to let me know it was an indicator failure

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: B737 Captain reports unsafe nose gear indication during climb at 6000 feet. During trouble shooting MCP locked up and landing gear warning horn began to sound. The crew is able to unlock the MCP and continue to destination where the gear extends normally.

Narrative: On climbout at approximately 6000 MSL; I noticed the red nose gear (in transit) light illuminated. The F/O and I went to the QRH and noticed the only item in the QRH on a gear light is the statement; 'Insure the gear handle is properly seated.' It was but the light stayed on. We slowed to 270 or less and checked the gear circuit breakers and the gear viewer. Neither revealed anything significant. We slowed; asked for a climb; and asked Dispatch and Maintenance Control to see if there was anything else we needed to do. At about this time; while the F/O was looking at the gear viewer the Mode Control Panel (MCP) locked up. With the gear horn going off almost constantly and all the MCP lights flashing 8's and 0's the Maintenance Controller recognized the issue over the radio while I was talking with Dispatch. They told us to go to the MCP Lockup checklist which was a lucky break because neither I nor the F/O had ever heard of this. With this issue the F/O and I both agreed (we were thinking a chain of events) that we might not be able to slow; so we declared an emergency. We told Dispatch; the Flight Attendants; and the Passengers we were diverting in case the gear did not come down (long runway and poor weather helped rule out ZZZ1 and ZZZ). After about 15 minutes of hand flying and yelling over the altitude alert the F/O found the second circuit breaker for the MCP and we decided to head to ZZZ since the last thing the Mechanic said about the gear was that he would alert ZZZ we were on the way. We informed Dispatch; the Crew; and Center of our intentions and kept the emergency on until we got three green lights on the gear about 25 miles out of ZZZ. We had the emergency equipment follow us in and then proceeded to talk with the Field Manager about the emergency and the Chief Pilot on Duty convincing him we were fit to continue our trip. After shutting the airplane down and sending the F/O over to the next airplane; I stopped and got food for the Crew since we were planning on eating in ZZZ. On pushback and start with both engines running off the gate the F/O asked me what I put in the forms of the grounded airplane. After a few expletives I called Maintenance who had actually met us at the gate and told them that I had forgotten to write up the grounded aircraft. The Mechanic assured me they would handle it and I followed up the next morning with a phone call to Maintenance to make sure it had been done and the Supervisor called me back to let me know it was an indicator failure

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.