An md-80 captain reported the nose gear failed to retract after departure. The crew subsequently dec...

Narrative:

After takeoff nose gear failed to retract. Completed MD80 'land abnormal red gear light in flight with gear handle up' checklist. Noise was loud and we climbed out at 210 KIAS to ensure we did not overspeed flaps or gear. After we completed the abnormal procedure the gear still would not retract. We declared an emergency. In the maintenance logbook there was a maintenance discrepancy that indicated a problem with the nose gear strut that was signed off. We also noticed the nose gear in-flight/ground shift mechanism was not operating on the ground properly because the strobe lights were on at the gate. Later the aircraft settled and the shift mechanism went back to ground mode. During our malfunction; this mechanism shifted to ground mode while we were in-flight. It is of my opinion this incident could have been prevented if the maintenance action had correctly diagnosed what was described as unusual noise from the nose gear during taxi. We landed without incident and maintenance said the strut had collapsed and the airplane was removed from service.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: An MD-80 Captain reported the nose gear failed to retract after departure. The crew subsequently declared an emergency and returned to the departure airport; the nose gear had been written up and signed off prior to departure.

Narrative: After takeoff nose gear failed to retract. Completed MD80 'Land Abnormal Red Gear Light in Flight with Gear Handle Up' checklist. Noise was loud and we climbed out at 210 KIAS to ensure we did not overspeed flaps or gear. After we completed the abnormal procedure the gear still would not retract. We declared an emergency. In the maintenance logbook there was a maintenance discrepancy that indicated a problem with the nose gear strut that was signed off. We also noticed the nose gear in-flight/ground shift mechanism was not operating on the ground properly because the strobe lights were on at the gate. Later the aircraft settled and the shift mechanism went back to ground mode. During our malfunction; this mechanism shifted to ground mode while we were in-flight. It is of my opinion this incident could have been prevented if the maintenance action had correctly diagnosed what was described as unusual noise from the nose gear during taxi. We landed without incident and Maintenance said the strut had collapsed and the airplane was removed from service.

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.

Attributes
ACN	867971
Time
Date	200912
Local Time Of Day	1801-2400
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.Airport
State Reference	US
Environment
Light	Night
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	MD-83
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Climb
Flight Plan	IFR
Component
Aircraft Component	Nose Gear
Person 1
Function	Captain Pilot Not Flying
Events
Anomaly	Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical

An md-80 captain reported the nose gear failed to retract after departure. The crew subsequently declared an emergency and returned to the departure airport; the nose gear had been written up and signed off prior to departure.