Posted on 11/11/2010 2:00:06 PM PST by naturalman1975
A QANTAS superjumbo was a flying wreck after an engine exploded shooting chunks of metal through fuel tanks and flight control systems.
.....
When it touched down the fuel systems were failing, the forward spar supporting the left wing had been holed and one of the jet's two hydraulic systems was knocked out and totally drained of fluid.
.....
"There was a wealth of experience in the cockpit, even the lowest ranked officer on board had thousands of hours of experience in his former role as a military flying instructor," said Capt Woodward, himself an A380 pilot on leave from Qantas.
.....
Investigators found shrapnel damage to the flaps, a huge hole in the upper surface of the left wing and a generator that was not working.
The crew could not shutdown the No. 1 engine using the fire switch.
As a result the engine's fire extinguishers could not be deployed.
Captain Richard de Crespigny, first officer Matt Hicks and Mark Johnson, the second officer, could not jettison the volume of fuel required for a safe emergency landing.
With more than 80 tonnes of highly volatile jet kerosene still in the 11 tanks -- two of which were leaking - they made an overweight and high speed approach to Changi Airport.
Without full hydraulics the spoilers - the hinged flaps on the front of the wings - could not be fully deployed to slow the jet.
The crew also had to rely on gravity for the undercarriage to drop and lock into place.
On landing they had no anti-skid brakes and could rely on only one engine for reverse thrust - needing all of the 4km runway at Changi to bring the jet to a stop.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.com.au ...
Yikes!
Or maybe Crikey!
You know these “Scarebus’s” must be a top priority of Al Queda. When one of these babies goes down....it’s gonna be ugly.
we take the pilots for granted when we fly. but you notice that when the #$@% hits the fanjet, they seem to step up big time?
You’ll never see me in one of those things!
Considering what these beasts cost, and the fact that Rolls Royce is looking at possible liability... things could get really interesting.
It appears that the engine practically grenaded - I would say the passengers should be thanking GOD Almighty for sparing their lives and limbs! WOW!!!
It is comforting, though, to see that the redundant systems showed their value -and this bird (albatross?) stayed in the air and got the passengers safely down.
I am fairly sure there are going to be heads rolling over this - maybe on many levels - as they should.
I would not be surprised to learn that those pilots left several pounds of used food on their seats....
There's probably only a few airports in the world where an A380 in that condition could land.
I would fly Quantas any day of the week.
Good reason for flying Boeing - built in America!
By their own testing standards, a catastrophic failure like this is practically impossible. When they test, the place explosives on fan blades, spin them up to 100% and then blast them free from the shaft. That’s how they test the integrity of the engine and the nacelle.
Crazy.
That sounds terrible! Good thing there were flight officers of long experience aboard and the engineering on the rest of the craft gave it the ruggedness necessary to make the safe landing!
WOW! What an epic egineering fail. Don’t like scarebus. Never did. Never will.
1 Massive fuel leak in the left mid fuel tank (there are 11 tanks, including in the horizontal stabiliser on the tail)
2 Massive fuel leak in the left inner fuel tank
3 A hole on the flap fairing big enough to climb through
4 The aft gallery in the fuel system failed, preventing many fuel transfer functions
5 Problem jettisoning fuel
6 Massive hole in the upper wing surface
7 Partial failure of leading edge slats
8 Partial failure of speed brakes/ground spoilers
9 Shrapnel damage to the flaps
10 Total loss of all hydraulic fluid in one of the jet's two systems
11 Manual extension of landing gear
12 Loss of one generator and associated systems
13 Loss of brake anti-skid system 14 No.1 engine could not be shut down in the usual way after landing because of major damage to systems
15 No.1 engine could not be shut down using the fire switch, which meant fire extinguishers would not work on that engine
16 ECAM (electronic centralised aircraft monitor) warnings about the major fuel imbalance (because of fuel leaks on left side) could not be fixed with cross-feeding
17 Fuel was trapped in the trim tank (in the tail)creating a balance problem for landing
18 Left wing forward spar penetrated by debris
The best safety device in any aircraft, is a well trained pilot...
And the pilots that get planes in that bad of shape down safely always seem to be the ones the system forces out due to age, regardless of physical or mental condition.
at least the lavatory was still working. and good thing they had their cell phones turned off, you know how that can mess up a flight
Shouldn't shrapnel be 100% contained according to today's standards?
Pilot?
I thought that was supposed to be completely USELESS in these computer managed aircraft!
Hahahaha!
Engineers have been saying that for YEARS! The only thing that modern aircraft needed in the cockpit was a dog, . . . to bite the pilot if he TOUCHED anything!
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.