DHL/EAT Crew Lands A300 With No Hydraulics After Being Hit By Missile

In a situation reminiscent of the United Airlines DC-10 landing without hydraulics in Iowa in 1989, the crew of a DHL A300 hit by a missile relied solely on engine power without flight controls to land at Baghdad.

Pierre Ghyoot, secretary general of the Belgian Cockpit Assn. (BeCA), told Aviation Week & Space Technology that the pilots were able to guide the aircraft to a safe landing on Nov. 22 using only engine power settings. The aircraft lost all three hydraulic systems and all flight controls. Ghyoot said his organization is already planning to give the crew a safety award.

According to one aviation source familiar with the incident in Baghdad, the incredible feat of airmanship is explained partly by a safety seminar the DHL/European Air Transport (EAT) captain attended in Brussels earlier this year. In a stroke of luck, one of the speakers was retired Capt. Al Haynes. In 1989, Haynes commanded a United Airlines DC-10 in which all the hydraulics had been lost due to a center engine rotor burst in cruise. Using engine thrust alone, the United crew was able to crash-land the crippled aircraft at the Sioux City, Iowa, airport, and the majority of the passengers survived.

After the DC-10 accident, studies and flight tests by McDonnell Douglas and NASA Dryden Flight Research Center showed engine thrust can be a control in some cases and that practice before landing is extremely valuable (AW&ST June 24, 1991, p. 43). NASA research pilot C. Gordon Fullerton noted the primary job is to damp roller-coaster phugoid oscillations in pitch and find a stable attitude. Adding thrust with underslung engines like the A300 tends to pitch the nose up. "You have to devote maximum attention to the position of the nose and keep pitch rates low," Fullerton said. Turning the aircraft is done with differential thrust.

NASA experience with landing a simulated Boeing 720 using manual control of thrust was "very iffy," but the agency and McDonnell Douglas modified an MD-11 with software to control the engines, and flight test showed it could make airline-quality landings using thrust alone. But for manual control, Fullerton suggested finding as large a landing area as possible, such as the lakebed runways of Edwards AFB, Calif. However, that presumes aircraft condition is not deteriorating, and the DHL aircraft's wing was on fire.

The DHL/EAT crew headed the aircraft back to Baghdad International after it was hit at 8,000 ft. on climbout from the airport. Normal DHL procedure at Baghdad is to make a steep climb to avoid attack. Takeoff configuration is slats extended with zero flap, and that is maintained in a 160-170-kt. climb to 10,000 ft. Then the slats are retracted and the aircraft accelerates to a normal 300-kt. climb speed. The flight was still in this low-speed climb when it was hit.

When the missile exploded, the crew first thought an engine had suffered an uncontained failure, but all readings were normal, the aviation source said. Then the hydraulic pressures started dropping and a ground call told them the wing was trailing smoke. The captain could see that the wing was on fire.

Damage, presumably from the missile blast, is concentrated at the left trailing edge along the outboard flap, between the engine and the outboard aileron. The outer half of the outboard flap is missing, and the outboard flap track is dangling from the bottom of the wing. About 10 ft. of the rear spar is broken open or missing, and fire-damaged ribs are visible inside the outboard structural fuel tank.

All hydraulic pressure was lost about a minute after the hit, the source said. The low-speed aileron outboard of the damage is supplied by all three hydraulic systems, and there are five spoilers in front of the outboard flap, fed by the three systems.

Primary flight controls become inoperative on the A300B4 with total loss of hydraulic pressure, because there is no manual reversion. The stabilizer trim froze because it is powered only by a pair of hydraulic motors. The crew deployed the ram air turbine with hydraulic pump, but the leaks rendered it ineffective.

The crew had problems controlling the aircraft and at times didn't think they would make it, the source said. But the captain recalled the Haynes presentation and started using engine thrust for control, and was surprised to find it worked rather well.

The aircraft circled twice while the crew manually extended the landing gear. Ghyoot said the pilots lined the aircraft up for a flat, straight-in approach from 20 naut. mi. out and that the approach and landing speeds were 225 kt., though the source said touchdown was around 180 kt. "Having the trim set right when they were hit saved them," the source said. Ghyoot said he believes the aircraft had flaps retracted, but the brakes worked as they were powered by an isolated hydraulic accumulator.

The crew aimed for runway 33 Right, but at short final were thrown off course and decided to try to land on runway 33 Left but were not properly lined up at touchdown. A photo shows the aircraft touching down on the runway on the right wheel, banked a few degrees to the right, and in a slightly nose-up attitude. The aircraft ran off the left side of the runway and went through barbed wires, fences, and dirt before coming to a stop near the fire station. Full reverse was applied, causing a large dust cloud. Both engines were damaged by debris.

A Paris Match magazine freelance photographer was with the attackers and shot pictures of the missile launch and strike, which are in the Nov. 27 issue.

Ghyoot said the U.S. Defense Dept. is investigating the missile attack, and then the Belgian Civil Aviation Authority's accident investigation service will conduct the final phase on the civil aspects. A Belgian criminal investigation is underway.

DHL was carrying U.S. mail to troops in Baghdad but shut down this operation for about a week after the missile attack. The 1979 vintage A300B4-203F was operated by DHL/EAT with two Belgian pilots and a British flight engineer. DHL offficials said the aircraft will eventually be repaired.

In the past 25 years there have been 35 shoulder-fired missile attacks on civil aircraft, 24 resulting in crashes with 500 fatalities, according to AOC, the electronic warfare and information operations association, in Alexandria, Va. The U.S. Homeland Security Dept. is about to pick contractors to develop prototype missile-self defense systems for use on commercial aircraft (AW&ST Dec. 1, p. 46).

Thank you very much for the link. I cringe at making an unreferenced assertion but I remembered that report pretty well at the time as well as remembering some more recent disgruntled objections to Haynes statements on the lecture circuit. He was the captain and had the responsibility for the flight, but Fitch had the throttles and made the landing.

I know them both - Al did a superb job of overall managing the situation - Denny did a great job of flying the plane with throttles only.

Al's decision to let Denny do the flying while he alerted the emergency crews on the ground, briefed the flight attendents on how to prepare the cabin, and maintain overall supervision saved many lives.

Fitch and Haynes' will always be revered as heroes by anyone that knows even a little about the United Flight into Sioux City. Both of those men were saddened greatly that about half of the passengers on their flight died; they saved half of a flight that was doomed and with what happened on the DHL flight are saving men and women today. Fitch and Haynes are true heroes and will have a place of honor in aviation history.

phugoid oscillations

I had to look that up.

A Paris Match magazine freelance photographer was with the attackers and shot pictures of the missile launch and strike, which are in the Nov. 27 issue.

Ah, French journalism at it's finest, aiding and abetting.

UMM, THE ARTICLE MENTION FULL LOSS OF HYDRAULIC CONTROL, REGARDLESS,OF FRENCH MADE OR NOT IF A BOEING AIRPLANE GETS HITT AND LOSSES HYDRALIC CONTROL,THEY WILL BE IN THE SAME BOAT.WERE TALKIN ABOUT A AN AIRPLANE THAT WEIGHS MORE THAN YOUR HOUSE, THIS ISNT SOME CESSNA-150.

WHAT KIND OF DOUGH-HEAD ARE YOU?

Dear newbie who signed on today apparently for the sole reason of shouting on a 2-year old thread:

My comment was based on the fact that the entire flight control system, including total pressure loss on all three hydraulics systems, occurred because of damage to one outboard flap.

One common approach in fluid system designs is to put isolation valves into the loop, so as to prevent leaks in one place from draining the entire system. It is clear that no such system existed in this case. Maybe it doesn't exist on any airplane. But it obviously should.

I once landed a KC-135 (modified 707; air refueler) rudder only; NO ailerons....and in a West Texas crosswind. Thought THAT was somethin'......but this is unreal. Kudos to the crew.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.