Posted on 09/07/2005 11:51:55 AM PDT by zipper
Well, heck! That's the problem! They got the darn valve from Ebay for Chrissakes!
Yes, the cooling alarm is activiated with too little airflow over electronics equipment. It is hard to hear in flight. I had a false one once and only heard it after getting to the gate. It is meant to alert ground crew that cooling fans are not powered, usualy due to ground crew not turning on, or turning off the external power.
"This warning is caused by the lack of pressurization as well. It led to insufficient airflow for cooling avionics."
I wonder why maintenence control didn't pick up on this, a dual cue to a pressurization problem?
Do you realy think they only needed to move the pressurization controler from manual to auto? I would have found that in about two seconds (and have).
Wasn't there something about the original Greek pilot refusing to fly the plane and them ending up with a substitute German pilot?
"That leaves only 10 mintues of tape to accomodate all the chatter for the last two hours."
Not exactly, it is a continous loop, and if nothing is recorded for the last two hours except wind noise, it might be able to extract the earlier conversations.
Ah, the happy results of multiculturalism!
As (I think) AmericanDave pointed out, the loud pressurization horn is not activated by the lack of flow to the avionics compartment; the ascent through thresholds of (lower) cabin pressure do. The effect of low cabin pressure leads to lower flow through the avionics compartment, which in turn causes the avionics cooling-related alert-- a separate function.
I found the 737 MMEL revision 45.a:
http://www.caa.co.uk/docs/33/B737R45A.pdf
Isn't the internet wonderful?
I think they had two 800 series and one 300 series-- not sure about the other one.
Because on the ground fans operate for cooling, since there is no pressure differential to force airflow across the avionics components. Likewise in flight the fans back up the venturi-induced airflow.
Holy cow, count your blessings!
Hell, that's nothing! The 349th 747 just blew up over Long Island as it's center fuel tank exploded. Damn things just keep blowin' up for some reason! Sure, so far they've onlt killed a little over a 100,000 passengers, but don't ya think we could figure it out by now???
It also occured to me it might be a Voice Activated recorder, which would stop recording if the mikes went quiet.
That's their story and they're stickin' to it.
While flying on C-130's in Florida we took off one day and everything seemed normal. As we climbed out to altitude, I was in the very back of the bird and heard a loud 'bang' and my ears started popping. I called the AC on the intercom and ask him if we were in a decompression and both pilot and copilot first said they weren't aware of anything wrong. They then checked the cabin pressure and sure enough, it was dropping.
We aborted the mission, did a controlability check and went back to Homestead.
The problem was caused by corrosion due to the urinal leaking. Boy, were we pissed off....
Funny story--
better pissed off than pissed on
That whole thing was almost an example of classic Darwinian evolution.
Having taken the boat up to a ranch in the Paraguayan Chaco region that took a full day due to the amazing, winding curves of the river, I decided to fly back to the capital, less than an hour's flight. The only line that flew the route was the military line, Transito Aero Militar. My host joked that it was better known as Transito Al Muerte. Well, it was half a joke.
The first plane had to return to the airport b/c the rear door opened mid-flight, leaving the luggage dangling in the wind, held only by the webbed straps that the crew, thankfully, secured. Into the next plane, one engine wouldn't start, even after a rather disconcerting attempt to jump it with common jumper cables and an old Jeep. After a wait, we were switched back to the original plane, which, we were told, was fixed. Flight was okay, discounting the lady puking across from us and the rest of the passengers nearing the same. We got to the capital, and touched down, at which point one of the wheels collapsed, and we skidded to a very quick stop.
I drove next trip.
Oh, another time I flew into that city in a G-III, piloted by a local. An American Air 767 was approaching at the same time. In spanish our pilot told the control tower to give us landing preference. The curses from the AA pilot were unforgettable!
Reminds me of stories of flying in Africa, especially sub-saharan Africa-- a real garden-spot.
I did a little reading on airliners.net-- so it was a simple question of auto or manual position. One of the earlier posts led me to believe there was a separate control knob in an inaccessible lower compartment. Anyway apparently they left the outflow valve fully open and took off without repositioning it or moving the knob to auto-- definitely a dumb move, but you'd think they would've caught all the other cues, including physical ones. Might as well have taken off with a door open.
"People, you need to be careful who you fly with. Generally speaking, small airlines in third world countries are dangerous."
Agree with that. Also agree at a push that Helios could be described as a 'small airline' (it is relative). But Greece is hardly third third world.
Helios operates flights in the UK and other third world countries. As such it is licenced and is 'supposed' to meet certain criterea. Given the story above I'm left wondering - is the UK criterea too low - or are the checks once they get their licence inadequate? Either way it is scary stuff.
For the record, most EU countries are going to publish their 'blacklists' (airlines so low on safety they wont allow them in their airspace) by the end of the year. For those on exotic holidays soon you may wish to check your carrier against these two lists....
French list
Air Koryo, North Korea
Air Saint-Thomas, US Virgin Islands
International Air Service, Liberia
Air Mozambique (LAM), including its subsidiary Transairways
Phuket Airlines, Thailand
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