Narrative:

At cruise FL370; about 30 min out of our destination; we lost the green hydraulic system. No other indications; just low hydraulic quantity. Followed the ECAM and then the 'hydraulic G lo lvl' checklist. Sent message to dispatch; declared an emergency and informed ATC of conditions and that we would not be able to exit runway due to no nose wheel steering. Dispatch responded to our requests. Weather in airport area was 'ms sn 003OVC RVR 4000.' checked weather at other area airports. We would not be able to get to our scheduled alternate after a missed approach due to gear manual extension and the gear will not come back up. Weather was IFR but above minimums at both of two nearby airports. Briefed all flight attendants together on interphone and did a cabin advisory. Did not tell passengers until after landing since they would not notice anything unusual until we had to get towed in. First officer was excellent at going through all the checklists and calculating landing distance factors. We configured early; manually extended the gear per the checklist and had a normal approach and landing. Broke out at 300 AGL. Long roll out then used differential braking to stop aircraft on the runway. Emergency equipment checked out aircraft and stated it looked ok. Waited 15 minutes for tug to arrive. They had 30 minute notice. We landed on longest runway which was a long ways away from operations; but overall we had the runway closed for 30 minutes waiting on them to bring the tug out. Used the tow in checklist. Flight attendants did a good job. Noted problems: our manual stated nothing about pinning the gear before being towed in with loss of green hydraulic system. We just remembered it and confirmed with maintenance. Checklist does not state page of next checklist. You have to look it up for each one. Ie: hydraulic G lo lvl---gravity gear extension--tow in. It is very important to go over inoperative systems on the status page for it is not addressed anywhere else. Like: green hydraulic; splr 1+5 ; CAT 3 dual; north.west. Strg; automatic brk; norm brk; left/G retr; reverser 1; yaw damper 1. You have to rely on lots of system knowledge to understand what is available and what is not. This problem requires 20 minutes to get through and we had 30; so the extra time was useful to stay on top of everything. Was contacted by flight manager and gave a debriefing.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: An A320 ECAM annunciated HYD G LO LVL at cruise 30 minutes from landing. An emergency was declared followed by a low visibility approach and landing.

Narrative: At cruise FL370; about 30 min out of our destination; we lost the green hydraulic system. No other indications; just low hydraulic quantity. Followed the ECAM and then the 'HYD G LO LVL' checklist. Sent message to Dispatch; declared an emergency and informed ATC of conditions and that we would not be able to exit runway due to no nose wheel steering. Dispatch responded to our requests. Weather in airport area was 'MS SN 003OVC RVR 4000.' Checked weather at other area airports. We would not be able to get to our scheduled alternate after a missed approach due to gear manual extension and the gear will not come back up. Weather was IFR but above minimums at both of two nearby airports. Briefed all Flight Attendants together on interphone and did a cabin advisory. Did not tell passengers until after landing since they would not notice anything unusual until we had to get towed in. First officer was excellent at going through all the checklists and calculating landing distance factors. We configured early; manually extended the gear per the checklist and had a normal approach and landing. Broke out at 300 AGL. Long roll out then used differential braking to stop aircraft on the runway. Emergency equipment checked out aircraft and stated it looked ok. Waited 15 minutes for tug to arrive. They had 30 minute notice. We landed on longest runway which was a long ways away from OPS; but overall we had the runway closed for 30 minutes waiting on them to bring the tug out. Used the tow in checklist. Flight Attendants did a good job. Noted problems: our manual stated nothing about pinning the gear before being towed in with loss of green hydraulic system. We just remembered it and confirmed with maintenance. Checklist does not state page of next checklist. You have to look it up for each one. IE: HYD G LO LVL---gravity gear extension--tow in. It is very important to go over inoperative systems on the status page for it is not addressed anywhere else. Like: GREEN HYD; SPLR 1+5 ; CAT 3 DUAL; N.W. STRG; AUTO BRK; NORM BRK; L/G RETR; REVERSER 1; YAW DAMPER 1. You have to rely on lots of system knowledge to understand what is available and what is not. This problem requires 20 minutes to get through and we had 30; so the extra time was useful to stay on top of everything. Was contacted by Flight Manager and gave a debriefing.

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.