Narrative:

On final approach the captain called for the gear down. When the gear was selected down we received three red gear unsafe lights. At that time the captain initiated a go-around and I notified tower. They gave us 4000 ft and runway heading and passed us off to approach. At that time the captain took over the #1 com while I tried to get in touch with maintenance control. After trying to contact them on commercial radio I was forced to have station operations relay messages to dispatch and maintenance. Informed maintenance of the problem and it was decided to perform an 'alt gear ext.' after performing the memory items we got the green gear down and locked lights for the main gear but the nlg light stayed red after three separate pulls on the nose wheel alt gear ext pull handle. At this point we declared an emergency with ATC; briefed the flight attendant; the passengers; and told the company what was happening. Because of the nlg problem we decided to burn off some fuel before returning to the airport for landing. While talking to operations we were asked to perform a fly by of the tower and to make another attempt at the 'nose gear alt ext' procedure. So I gave the handle another pull and the nose wheel came down and gave a green down and locked indication. We told the flight attendant; the passengers and the company of this. After an uneventful landing the fire dept. Trucks checked out the plane and informed us that the nose wheel looked crooked. At that time we called operations and told them that we would need a tow to the gate. Operations said we could not tow the aircraft to the ramp with passengers on board so they unloaded the plane and bused the passengers to the terminal.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Dash 8 Flight Crew experiences unsafe gear indication after attempt at normal gear extension during approach. Initial attempts at manual gear extension do not produce a safe NLG indication; but the final attempt is successful and a safe landing ensues.

Narrative: On final approach the Captain called for the gear down. When the Gear was selected down we received three red gear unsafe lights. At that time the Captain initiated a Go-around and I notified Tower. They gave us 4000 ft and runway heading and passed us off to Approach. At that time the Captain took over the #1 com while I tried to get in touch with Maintenance Control. After trying to contact them on commercial radio I was forced to have station operations relay messages to Dispatch and Maintenance. Informed Maintenance of the problem and it was decided to perform an 'Alt Gear Ext.' After performing the memory items we got the green gear down and locked lights for the main gear but the NLG light stayed red after three separate pulls on the nose wheel Alt Gear Ext Pull handle. At this point we declared an emergency with ATC; briefed the Flight Attendant; the Passengers; and told the Company what was happening. Because of the NLG problem we decided to burn off some fuel before returning to the airport for landing. While talking to Operations we were asked to perform a fly by of the tower and to make another attempt at the 'Nose Gear Alt Ext' procedure. So I gave the handle another pull and the nose wheel came down and gave a green down and locked indication. We told the Flight Attendant; the Passengers and the Company of this. After an uneventful landing the Fire Dept. trucks checked out the plane and informed us that the nose wheel looked crooked. At that time we called Operations and told them that we would need a tow to the gate. Operations said we could not tow the aircraft to the ramp with passengers on board so they unloaded the plane and bused the passengers to the terminal.

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.