A crj-50 flight crew suffered the loss of nose wheel steering shortly prior to landing. They declare...

Narrative:

During cruise flight; we got a 'steer inop'. Nose wheel steering would not reset per the QRH. We would be landing without nose wheel steering. We contacted operations and maintenance control and coordinated with company for an emergency landing and a tow in to the gate at our destination. We then advised ATC we were declaring an emergency and that we would need the longest runway. The approach and landing were normal; along with roll out. We cleared the runway via the high speed exit; rolled to a taxiway; set the brakes and waited for the tow equipment. The nose wheel steering had failed/disengaged two legs earlier during a sharp left hand turn. I stopped when I felt it. I moved the tiller then got the 'steer inoperative' message. The system reset with no further problem for two legs. This is not completely uncommon. The aircraft are even known to have a 'steer inop' nuisance message sometimes after takeoff. This is my second 'steer inop' failure in the last two months. This happened twice after maintenance had cleared the problem. Any steering problems should be reported to maintenance control immediately even if one thinks it is a nuisance message.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A CRJ-50 Flight Crew suffered the loss of nose wheel steering shortly prior to landing. They declared an emergency; landed without incident and were towed to the gate. Reporter advised of several previous instances of similar steering warnings.

Narrative: During cruise flight; we got a 'Steer Inop'. Nose wheel steering would not reset per the QRH. We would be landing without nose wheel steering. We contacted Operations and Maintenance Control and coordinated with company for an emergency landing and a tow in to the gate at our destination. We then advised ATC we were declaring an emergency and that we would need the longest runway. The approach and landing were normal; along with roll out. We cleared the runway via the high speed exit; rolled to a taxiway; set the brakes and waited for the tow equipment. The nose wheel steering had failed/disengaged two legs earlier during a sharp left hand turn. I stopped when I felt it. I moved the tiller then got the 'STEER INOP' message. The system reset with no further problem for two legs. This is not completely uncommon. The aircraft are even known to have a 'Steer Inop' nuisance message sometimes after takeoff. This is my second 'Steer Inop' failure in the last two months. This happened twice after maintenance had cleared the problem. Any steering problems should be reported to Maintenance Control immediately even if one thinks it is a nuisance message.

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	928693
Time
Date	201101
Local Time Of Day	1201-1800
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.ARTCC
State Reference	US
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Regional Jet CL65 Undifferentiated or Other Model
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Cruise
Flight Plan	IFR
Component
Aircraft Component	Nosewheel Steering
Person 1
Function	Captain Pilot Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 170 Flight Crew Total 16000 Flight Crew Type 9000
Events
Anomaly	Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical

A crj-50 flight crew suffered the loss of nose wheel steering shortly prior to landing. They declared an emergency; landed without incident and were towed to the gate. Reporter advised of several previous instances of similar steering warnings.