David Morton
Lifetime Supporter
I apologise if some of this is in "glass cockpit pilot speak" but the essence of this article is somewhat worrying when you think what Airbus are trying to get people to believe is their way forward. I was a De Havilland and Boeing pilot but I make no political points in printing this article.
Subject: Fwd: Suddenly, a cruise appeals!
Subject: Fwd: Suddenly, a cruise appeals!
Air force pilot pal sent this
Subject: Suddenly, a cruise appeals!
I received this from a former BA mate; makes interesting reading! So much for automated systems and the 3-man flight deck! Quantas nearly lost their 100% safety record.
Two more A380 accounts that are circulating.
1. Subject: More on the A380 QF 32 Incident
Subject: For the Airbus Chaps
More info on the A 380 Incident:
1. Bus #2 is supposedly automatically powered by Bus #1, in the event of Engine #2 failure - didn't happen.
2. Buses #3 & #4 will supposedly power Bus #2 in the event that the auto transfer from Bus #1 fails - didn't happen.
3. After some time the RAT deployed for no apparent reason, locking out (as a load-shedding function) some still functioning services.
4. One of the frequently recurring messages warned of the aircraft approaching the aft C of G limit, (the procedure calls for transferring fuel forward), the next message advised of fwd transfer pumps being u/s. This sequence occurred repeatedly.
5. Apparently landing/approach speeds are obtained from the FMS, but there weren't anywhere near sufficient fields to load all the defects for speed corrections - the crew loaded what they thought were the most critical ones.
6. The crew commenced an approach NOT because they'd sorted out all the problems but because they were very worried about the 'way-out-of-tolerance', and steadily worsening, lateral imbalance.
7. The aircraft stopped with just over 100 metres or runway left, brakes temps climbed to 900C and fuel pouring out of the ruptured tank. Unable to shutdown #1 engine (as previously mentioned) but elected not to evacuate as the fire services were attending in great numbers.
8. The other comment from the source of the above, (who was on the flight deck), was that the aeroplane did many things they simply didn't understand and/or failed to operate as expected
[Bus , Buses : Electrical term for 'Bus bar' - an electrical distribution point.]
2. Hi All
More info on the Singapore Qantas A380 incident. This was very nearly a major disaster. It was not just an engine failure, uncontained at that. That is something we are all trained to deal with, but this almost cascaded into an uncotrollable situation, read below. The second part of this email you may have read before but it all still makes chilling reading.
Cast you memory back to summer 2007. I am quite convinced that the Air France A330 that was lost over the southern Atlantic a couple of years ago was as the result of flying into the ITCZ at night and in the resulting severe turbulence cascade electrical failures occurred, the crew became overwhelmed and control was lost. In August this year an A321 from British Midland (BMI) went temporarily out of control due to electrical problems causing an uncommanded excursions from level flight. Initially the pilots could not get the aircraft to respond to normal control inputs. Now we have another Airbus product, the QF A380, slowly becoming almost uncontrollable after an engine failure and electrical anomalies. Sorry, but there is a serious message here. These aircraft should be grounded until these potentially disastrous design faults can be rectified and before we have another major accident with loss of life. Any aircraft that requires the combined experience and abilities of all five pilot crew members to stay in the air and not crash has a major design flaw! The writing is on the wall.
Subject: A380
This was a very experienced crew, with over 75 years combined flying experience. (Qantas Long Haul flights dictate a 3 man flight deck crew.- Aircraft Commander, 1st Officer and 2nd Officer. The 2nd Officer was an ex Australian Airforce Instructor)
Also in the cockpit that day were a Check Captain and another Senior B747 Captain doing a conversion to type. Add their combined experience to the mix and there was nearly 130 years experience up there that day.
All were very busy during the emergency, with each taking on a particular task.
A lesser experienced crew would have really been up against it and probably would have been overwhelmed.
Cockpit alarms sounded constantly and the aircraft slowly became tail heavy and right wing heavy as the crew were unable to transfer fuel, period.
The crew struggled for over an hour to stabilize the aircraft.
2 of the 3 electrical Bus 's dropped out and they lost many vital instruments
Eventually the decision was made to get the aircraft down before it became so uncontrollable that even the computers would not have been able to keep it airborne.
Afterwards, the aircraft was described by inspectors as a "Flying Wreck."
No matter what the press say about Qantas, their pilot training is 2nd to none!!!
<TABLE class=MsoNormalTable id=spacer style="WIDTH: 442.5pt; COLOR: #000000" cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=590 border=0><TBODY><TR><TD style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0cm; PADDING-LEFT: 0cm; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0cm; PADDING-TOP: 0cm">Below is a summary of what they were up against.</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
<TABLE class=MsoNormalTable style="WIDTH: 442.5pt; COLOR: #000000" cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=590 border=0><TBODY><TR><TD style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0cm; PADDING-LEFT: 0cm; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0cm; PADDING-TOP: 0cm">
Qantas A380 Was Heavily Damaged
The Qantas crew whose A380 suffered an uncontained engine failure earlier this month had their hands full in getting the super jumbo back to Singapore. Shrapnel from the engine disabled one of two main hydraulic systems, hampered the fuel transfer system, punched a hole in the forward wing spar and caused a major fuel leak. The cascading nature of such failures meant the pilots couldn't dump enough fuel to bring the aircraft down to its maximum landing weight and the fuel left in the airplane was unbalanced. Flaps, slats and spoilers couldn't be fully deployed and the gear had to be dropped manually. Once it was on the ground, the anti-lock brakes didn't work and, since the damaged engine was an inboard one, there was only one left for reverse thrust (the outboard engines of A380s don't have reversers because they often overhang the grass and might be FOD damaged). The heavy, significantly disabled aircraft needed virtually all of the 13,123 feet of available runway. The whole wing might have to be replaced and the aircraft is expected to be out of commission for months. Meanwhile, the cause of the engine problem has been determined and it's just adding to the PR problems facing manufacturer Rolls-Royce.
According to the Courier Mail, newer versions of the Trent 900 engine installed in aircraft built after the Qantas jet in question had redesigned bearing boxes to prevent the oil leaks that resulted in the engine explosion. Airbus sales chief John Leahy told the paper he wasn't sure if the three airlines that chose the Trent for their A380s, Qantas, Singapore and Lufthansa, knew about the changes and which engines had been upgraded. Other A380 buyers chose the Engine Alliance GP7000.
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
MORE – SOME YOU MAY HAVE ALREADY SEEN.
Here are just SOME of the problems Richard (Richard ChampionDeCrespigny, the aircraft commander) and his crew had in Singapore last week aboard QF32....
* massive fuel leak in the left mid fuel tank (the beast has 11 tanks, including in the horizontal stabiliser on the tail)
* massive fuel leak in the left inner fuel tank
* a hole on the flap canoe/fairing that you could fit your upper body through
* the aft gallery in the fuel system failed, preventing many fuel transfer functions
* fuel jettison had problems due to the previous problem above
* bloody great hole in the upper wing surface
* partial failure of leading edge slats
* partial failure of speed brakes/ground spoilers
* shrapnel damage to the flaps
* TOTAL loss of all hydraulic fluid in the Green System (beast has 2 x 5,000 PSI systems, Green and Yellow)
* manual extension of landing gear
* loss of 1 generator and associated systems
* loss of brake anti-skid system
* unable to shutdown adjacent #1 engine using normal method after landing due to major damage to systems
* unable to shutdown adjacent #1 engine using the fire switch!!!!!!!!
Therefore, no fire protection was available for that engine after the explosion in #2
* ECAM warnings about major fuel imbalance because of fuel leaks on left side, that were UNABLE to be fixed with cross-feeding
* fuel trapped in Trim Tank (in the tail). Therefore, possible major CofG out-of-balance condition for landing. Yikes!
* and much more to come..........
Richard was in the left seat, FO in the right, SO in the 2nd obs seat (right rear, also with his own Radio Management Panel, so he probably did most of the coordination with the ground), Capt Dave Evans in the 1st obs seat (middle). He is a Check & Training Captain who was training Capt Harry Wubbin to be one also.
Harry was in the 3rd obs seat (left rear).
All 5 guys were FLAT OUT, especially the FO who would have been processing complicated 'ECAM' messages and procedures that were seemingly never-ending!
Subject: Suddenly, a cruise appeals!
I received this from a former BA mate; makes interesting reading! So much for automated systems and the 3-man flight deck! Quantas nearly lost their 100% safety record.
Two more A380 accounts that are circulating.
1. Subject: More on the A380 QF 32 Incident
Subject: For the Airbus Chaps
More info on the A 380 Incident:
1. Bus #2 is supposedly automatically powered by Bus #1, in the event of Engine #2 failure - didn't happen.
2. Buses #3 & #4 will supposedly power Bus #2 in the event that the auto transfer from Bus #1 fails - didn't happen.
3. After some time the RAT deployed for no apparent reason, locking out (as a load-shedding function) some still functioning services.
4. One of the frequently recurring messages warned of the aircraft approaching the aft C of G limit, (the procedure calls for transferring fuel forward), the next message advised of fwd transfer pumps being u/s. This sequence occurred repeatedly.
5. Apparently landing/approach speeds are obtained from the FMS, but there weren't anywhere near sufficient fields to load all the defects for speed corrections - the crew loaded what they thought were the most critical ones.
6. The crew commenced an approach NOT because they'd sorted out all the problems but because they were very worried about the 'way-out-of-tolerance', and steadily worsening, lateral imbalance.
7. The aircraft stopped with just over 100 metres or runway left, brakes temps climbed to 900C and fuel pouring out of the ruptured tank. Unable to shutdown #1 engine (as previously mentioned) but elected not to evacuate as the fire services were attending in great numbers.
8. The other comment from the source of the above, (who was on the flight deck), was that the aeroplane did many things they simply didn't understand and/or failed to operate as expected
[Bus , Buses : Electrical term for 'Bus bar' - an electrical distribution point.]
2. Hi All
More info on the Singapore Qantas A380 incident. This was very nearly a major disaster. It was not just an engine failure, uncontained at that. That is something we are all trained to deal with, but this almost cascaded into an uncotrollable situation, read below. The second part of this email you may have read before but it all still makes chilling reading.
Cast you memory back to summer 2007. I am quite convinced that the Air France A330 that was lost over the southern Atlantic a couple of years ago was as the result of flying into the ITCZ at night and in the resulting severe turbulence cascade electrical failures occurred, the crew became overwhelmed and control was lost. In August this year an A321 from British Midland (BMI) went temporarily out of control due to electrical problems causing an uncommanded excursions from level flight. Initially the pilots could not get the aircraft to respond to normal control inputs. Now we have another Airbus product, the QF A380, slowly becoming almost uncontrollable after an engine failure and electrical anomalies. Sorry, but there is a serious message here. These aircraft should be grounded until these potentially disastrous design faults can be rectified and before we have another major accident with loss of life. Any aircraft that requires the combined experience and abilities of all five pilot crew members to stay in the air and not crash has a major design flaw! The writing is on the wall.
Subject: A380
This was a very experienced crew, with over 75 years combined flying experience. (Qantas Long Haul flights dictate a 3 man flight deck crew.- Aircraft Commander, 1st Officer and 2nd Officer. The 2nd Officer was an ex Australian Airforce Instructor)
Also in the cockpit that day were a Check Captain and another Senior B747 Captain doing a conversion to type. Add their combined experience to the mix and there was nearly 130 years experience up there that day.
All were very busy during the emergency, with each taking on a particular task.
A lesser experienced crew would have really been up against it and probably would have been overwhelmed.
Cockpit alarms sounded constantly and the aircraft slowly became tail heavy and right wing heavy as the crew were unable to transfer fuel, period.
The crew struggled for over an hour to stabilize the aircraft.
2 of the 3 electrical Bus 's dropped out and they lost many vital instruments
Eventually the decision was made to get the aircraft down before it became so uncontrollable that even the computers would not have been able to keep it airborne.
Afterwards, the aircraft was described by inspectors as a "Flying Wreck."
No matter what the press say about Qantas, their pilot training is 2nd to none!!!
<TABLE class=MsoNormalTable id=spacer style="WIDTH: 442.5pt; COLOR: #000000" cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=590 border=0><TBODY><TR><TD style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0cm; PADDING-LEFT: 0cm; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0cm; PADDING-TOP: 0cm">Below is a summary of what they were up against.</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
<TABLE class=MsoNormalTable style="WIDTH: 442.5pt; COLOR: #000000" cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=590 border=0><TBODY><TR><TD style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0cm; PADDING-LEFT: 0cm; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0cm; PADDING-TOP: 0cm">
Qantas A380 Was Heavily Damaged
The Qantas crew whose A380 suffered an uncontained engine failure earlier this month had their hands full in getting the super jumbo back to Singapore. Shrapnel from the engine disabled one of two main hydraulic systems, hampered the fuel transfer system, punched a hole in the forward wing spar and caused a major fuel leak. The cascading nature of such failures meant the pilots couldn't dump enough fuel to bring the aircraft down to its maximum landing weight and the fuel left in the airplane was unbalanced. Flaps, slats and spoilers couldn't be fully deployed and the gear had to be dropped manually. Once it was on the ground, the anti-lock brakes didn't work and, since the damaged engine was an inboard one, there was only one left for reverse thrust (the outboard engines of A380s don't have reversers because they often overhang the grass and might be FOD damaged). The heavy, significantly disabled aircraft needed virtually all of the 13,123 feet of available runway. The whole wing might have to be replaced and the aircraft is expected to be out of commission for months. Meanwhile, the cause of the engine problem has been determined and it's just adding to the PR problems facing manufacturer Rolls-Royce.
According to the Courier Mail, newer versions of the Trent 900 engine installed in aircraft built after the Qantas jet in question had redesigned bearing boxes to prevent the oil leaks that resulted in the engine explosion. Airbus sales chief John Leahy told the paper he wasn't sure if the three airlines that chose the Trent for their A380s, Qantas, Singapore and Lufthansa, knew about the changes and which engines had been upgraded. Other A380 buyers chose the Engine Alliance GP7000.
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
MORE – SOME YOU MAY HAVE ALREADY SEEN.
Here are just SOME of the problems Richard (Richard ChampionDeCrespigny, the aircraft commander) and his crew had in Singapore last week aboard QF32....
* massive fuel leak in the left mid fuel tank (the beast has 11 tanks, including in the horizontal stabiliser on the tail)
* massive fuel leak in the left inner fuel tank
* a hole on the flap canoe/fairing that you could fit your upper body through
* the aft gallery in the fuel system failed, preventing many fuel transfer functions
* fuel jettison had problems due to the previous problem above
* bloody great hole in the upper wing surface
* partial failure of leading edge slats
* partial failure of speed brakes/ground spoilers
* shrapnel damage to the flaps
* TOTAL loss of all hydraulic fluid in the Green System (beast has 2 x 5,000 PSI systems, Green and Yellow)
* manual extension of landing gear
* loss of 1 generator and associated systems
* loss of brake anti-skid system
* unable to shutdown adjacent #1 engine using normal method after landing due to major damage to systems
* unable to shutdown adjacent #1 engine using the fire switch!!!!!!!!
Therefore, no fire protection was available for that engine after the explosion in #2
* ECAM warnings about major fuel imbalance because of fuel leaks on left side, that were UNABLE to be fixed with cross-feeding
* fuel trapped in Trim Tank (in the tail). Therefore, possible major CofG out-of-balance condition for landing. Yikes!
* and much more to come..........
Richard was in the left seat, FO in the right, SO in the 2nd obs seat (right rear, also with his own Radio Management Panel, so he probably did most of the coordination with the ground), Capt Dave Evans in the 1st obs seat (middle). He is a Check & Training Captain who was training Capt Harry Wubbin to be one also.
Harry was in the 3rd obs seat (left rear).
All 5 guys were FLAT OUT, especially the FO who would have been processing complicated 'ECAM' messages and procedures that were seemingly never-ending!
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