Posted on 05/16/2008 8:02:23 PM PDT by shield
The brand spanking new Airbus 340-600, the largest passenger airplane ever built, sat in its hangar in Toulouse, France without a single hour of airtime. Enter the Arab flight crew of Abu Dhabi Aircraft Technologies (ADAT) to conduct pre-delivery tests on the ground, such as engine runups, prior to delivery to Etihad Airways in Abu Dhabi. The date was November 15, 2007.
The ADAT crew taxied the A340-600 to the run-up area. Then they took all four engines to takeoff power with a virtually empty aircraft. Not having read the run-up manuals, they had no clue just how light an empty A340-600 really is.
The takeoff warning horn was blaring away in the cockpit because they had all 4 engines at full power. The aircraft computers thought they were trying to takeoff but it had not been configured properly (flaps/slats, etc.) Then one of the ADAT crew decided to pull the circuit breaker on the Ground Proximity Sensor to silence the alarm.
This fools the aircraft into thinking it is in the air.
The computers automatically released all the brakes and set the aircraft rocketing forward. The ADAT crew had no idea that this is a safety feature so that pilots can't land with the brakes on.
Not one member of the seven-man Arab crew was smart enough to throttle back the engines from their max power setting, so the $80 million brand-new aircraft crashed into a blast barrier, totaling it.
The extent of injuries to the crew is unknown, for there has been a news blackout in the major media in France and elsewhere. Coverage of the story was deemed insulting to Moslem Arabs. Finally, the photos are starting to leak out.
It’s news to me...hilarious too!
Lets back up and try that again
And it will have that irrating 3rd jet wobbling and shaking between 110-130mph forever. lol
ping
I’ll vote that for Best Comment.
"Give me about 2000 gallons on each side and I'll be ready to go as soon as I file the flight plan"
Yes, but at the time, it was attributed to an Airbus flight test crew, not the customer. And nothing was said about them being Arab idiots. This is new news.
Funny, all right. The photos are classic.
Ping for more info and pictures of that little Airbus “oopsie”. Not even AvLeak dared more than print the one picture, and there was no editorial commentary.
Although the thing is ... how do you know the crews are Arabs? Sure it’s an Arabian airline, but Abu Dhabi, heck, even counting the whole of UAE is so small that there aren’t enough qualified native flight crews. I have flown a number of times on both Emirate Airway as well as Etihed and the long hual cockpit crew (Captain + pilot + spare) on my flights have always been foreign hired hands - Brits, Aussies, Greek, Italian, the odd Russian, ... but so far no Arabs.
lyfao ping
Thanks for posting it, Shield. If someone had been in first class, they'd probably be dead. What maroons the flight crew are.
I’m pretty sure I saw those pics a few months ago, but with a different story behind it.
good point - most every crew I’ve flown with in Asia has been ex-pat.
So what are we talking here, $20, $30 of Bondo and an hour on the frame machine?
The World’s Spookiest Weapons
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2017185/posts
...besides Flight 93.
Yeah, but you and your crew took off and/or landed!
lol
DOH!...
Man was not meant to fly. Mohammed, praised be his name, did not have a plane so we muzzl'ems should not have planes either. Crash the planes, tool of the Jewish pigs and sons of the devil!
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