Another Air Disasters program—Airbus losing ALL fuel over the atlantic
Posted by John Reed on
I saw a National Geographic Air Disasters tonight. I thought I had seen them all. But I did not recognize this one. Then the announcers said neither the crew nor the manufacturer nor the safety investigators would talk to the TV producers.
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WTF? All these shows are centered on the safety investigators interviews.
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Big Airbus ran out of fuel because of a leak. They had to glide a could or hundred miles and managed to land at Lajes FB in the Azores.
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But it was not as easy as that made it sound. You have to get lower for oxygen because you lose cabin pressure with no engines. But getting lower means you get to sea level sooner—maybe before you get to Lajes. Ditching in the ocean in an Airbus is rarely like Sully over the Hudson. More likely, the plane breaks up and about 3/4 of the passengers die.
.
In this case, the cause was that the maintenance men did not have a hydraulic pipe connection so they used an older one that did not match. It caused a fractured fuel line which leaked out of the plane.
.
The pilots made things worse by not believing the instruments. They moved fuel from the not broke wing to the broke wing tp balance the weight of the plane but that lost more fuel.
.
All tires blown on landing, probably good because they were going to fast and the end of the runway was a 400-foot cliff. The pilots otherwise did a great job of landing the plane.
.
The next program, plane did not rise on take off. Having seen many of these shows I figured they did not extend the flaps. When they mentioned them on the taxi checklist, the guy seemed kind of pro forma as if he was saying what he usually SAID—15º 15º all green—but not really checking. He needed to pull the flaps lever back to a 15º setting which would turn on green lights indicating both wings’ flaps were in the proper setting for takeoff. They could tell from the wreckage that the flaps were not extended at all.
.
Saying, but not actually checking, the checklist has been the cause of several of the crashes. In one program about an Asian airline, the checklist reader had a more elaborate procedure. He had to physically point at the lever and lights and verbally was describing his actions. Like instead of “Flaps? 15 15 green light” it was “Flaps I am taking flaps lever and pulling it back to 15º. Now I touch each green light.”
.
Simple difference, but maybe the difference between life and death.
The takeoff was a bit rushed—too rushed. Both pilots got fired. Many people killed in the crash.
.
WTF? All these shows are centered on the safety investigators interviews.
.
Big Airbus ran out of fuel because of a leak. They had to glide a could or hundred miles and managed to land at Lajes FB in the Azores.
.
But it was not as easy as that made it sound. You have to get lower for oxygen because you lose cabin pressure with no engines. But getting lower means you get to sea level sooner—maybe before you get to Lajes. Ditching in the ocean in an Airbus is rarely like Sully over the Hudson. More likely, the plane breaks up and about 3/4 of the passengers die.
.
In this case, the cause was that the maintenance men did not have a hydraulic pipe connection so they used an older one that did not match. It caused a fractured fuel line which leaked out of the plane.
.
The pilots made things worse by not believing the instruments. They moved fuel from the not broke wing to the broke wing tp balance the weight of the plane but that lost more fuel.
.
All tires blown on landing, probably good because they were going to fast and the end of the runway was a 400-foot cliff. The pilots otherwise did a great job of landing the plane.
.
The next program, plane did not rise on take off. Having seen many of these shows I figured they did not extend the flaps. When they mentioned them on the taxi checklist, the guy seemed kind of pro forma as if he was saying what he usually SAID—15º 15º all green—but not really checking. He needed to pull the flaps lever back to a 15º setting which would turn on green lights indicating both wings’ flaps were in the proper setting for takeoff. They could tell from the wreckage that the flaps were not extended at all.
.
Saying, but not actually checking, the checklist has been the cause of several of the crashes. In one program about an Asian airline, the checklist reader had a more elaborate procedure. He had to physically point at the lever and lights and verbally was describing his actions. Like instead of “Flaps? 15 15 green light” it was “Flaps I am taking flaps lever and pulling it back to 15º. Now I touch each green light.”
.
Simple difference, but maybe the difference between life and death.
The takeoff was a bit rushed—too rushed. Both pilots got fired. Many people killed in the crash.
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