Narrative:

On arrival slat handle was difficult to move to 0/extend and also to 11/extend; and then moved normally. Next; at 1800 ft on approach; the landing gear handle would not move at all. It would not move to down position. Gear retraction and up conditions were normal from liftoff to approach. We went around and declared an emergency. I briefed the flight attendants and made a PA. We were vectored to the west at 4000 ft; we tried the handle several times to see if it was just wedged in the panel. Once level we got the checklist out and we were ready to begin the manual gear extend procedure for handle stuck in the up position. We checked the handle one more time and it moved down normally with all indications normal. We were vectored back and landed uneventfully. I stopped on the runway and had arff do a cursory check of the gear and no anomaly was noted. Arff followed us to the gate. My only guess is that due to the aircraft being in light to moderate rain for an extended period of time with a couple seams leaking water into the interior of the aircraft; water found its way to some cable locations and froze after almost three hours at FL370. The extra time at lower altitude with flaps down may have thawed the frozen actuator cables. The aircraft had been on the ground over night and was delayed due to water entering the cabin. Maintenance pressurized the aircraft and found leaks with detector on outside of fuselage. We were then released 'with a one flight with passengers' release from engineering.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: MD80 Flight Crew reports inability to move landing gear handle to the down position during approach. A go-around ensued; after some trouble shooting the handle moved and the gear extended normally.

Narrative: On arrival slat handle was difficult to move to 0/extend and also to 11/extend; and then moved normally. Next; at 1800 FT on approach; the landing gear handle would not move at all. It would not move to down position. Gear retraction and up conditions were normal from liftoff to approach. We went around and declared an emergency. I briefed the Flight Attendants and made a PA. We were vectored to the west at 4000 FT; we tried the handle several times to see if it was just wedged in the panel. Once level we got the checklist out and we were ready to begin the manual gear extend procedure for handle stuck in the up position. We checked the handle one more time and it moved down normally with all indications normal. We were vectored back and landed uneventfully. I stopped on the runway and had ARFF do a cursory check of the gear and no anomaly was noted. ARFF followed us to the gate. My only guess is that due to the aircraft being in light to moderate rain for an extended period of time with a couple seams leaking water into the interior of the aircraft; water found its way to some cable locations and froze after almost three hours at FL370. The extra time at lower altitude with flaps down may have thawed the frozen actuator cables. The aircraft had been on the ground over night and was delayed due to water entering the cabin. Maintenance pressurized the aircraft and found leaks with detector on outside of fuselage. We were then released 'with a one flight with passengers' release from engineering.

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.