Alliance E190 at Cairns on Jul 25th 2025, retracted gear above maximum retraction speed

Last Update: April 24, 2026 / 15:52:06 GMT/Zulu time

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Incident Facts

Date of incident
Jul 25, 2025

Classification
Report

Airline
Alliance Air

Flight number
QF-1851

Departure
Cairns, Australia

Destination
Brisbane, Australia

Aircraft Registration
VH-A2T

Aircraft Type
Embraer ERJ-190

ICAO Type Designator
E190

An Alliance Airlines Embraer ERJ-190 on behalf of Qantas, registration VH-A2T performing flight QF-1851 from Cairns,QL to Brisbane,QL (Australia) with 90 passengers and 4 crew, was departing Cairns' runway 15, when the crew became distracted during rotation and focussed on the flight path. The captain realized the gear was still down when the aircraft was following the standard instrument departure route already at 252 KIAS, the gear was retracted at 17 knots above maximum gear retraction speed. The flight continued to Brisbane for a safe landing, subsequent inspection did not find any damage.

The ATSB released their final report concluding the probable causes of the incident were:

After take-off, the pilot monitoring made a 'pitch rate' announcement at a time when a 'positive rate' announcement would normally be expected. This resulted in both flight crewmembers focusing on the pitch angle and the pilot flying was not prompted to call for gear retraction. Subsequently the crew's attention was focused on following the departure flight path and the landing gear was not retracted.

- As the aircraft turned left to follow the standard instrument departure, abnormal radio altimeter indications were presented, and the flight management system unexpectedly commanded a right turn. When the autopilot was engaged, the aircraft briefly followed the commanded turn before the captain intervened. These distractions increased the flight crew's workload and delayed their identification of the extended landing gear.

- After recognising that the landing gear was still extended, the captain reflexively retracted the landing gear at a speed above the maximum landing gear retraction speed.

The ATSB summarized the sequence of events:

As the aircraft became airborne in darkness, the captain, acting as pilot monitoring, announced ‘pitch rate’ to alert the first officer, who was pilot flying, that the aircraft’s rotation had slowed. Both crewmembers then focused on the aircraft flight path, and the retraction of the landing gear was inadvertently omitted.

As the aircraft continued climbing and turning left to follow the SID, the flight crew received 2 radio altimeter annunciations and observed the flight director unexpectedly command a right turn. After completing the left turn to follow the SID, the first officer engaged the autopilot, and the aircraft started a right turn toward terrain. The captain identified the turn and instructed the first officer to turn left back to the required track.

As the aircraft then continued along the SID, the captain recognised that the landing gear was still extended and quickly retracted it. The landing gear completed retracting when the aircraft had reached a speed of 252 kt, 17 kt above the maximum landing gear retraction speed.

The flight continued and the aircraft landed at Brisbane without further incident at 2044. Following the flight, the aircraft was inspected and found to be undamaged.
Incident Facts

Date of incident
Jul 25, 2025

Classification
Report

Airline
Alliance Air

Flight number
QF-1851

Departure
Cairns, Australia

Destination
Brisbane, Australia

Aircraft Registration
VH-A2T

Aircraft Type
Embraer ERJ-190

ICAO Type Designator
E190

This article is published under license from Avherald.com. © of text by Avherald.com.
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