a380 Qantas engine failure worse then originally reported

[smeyer418]

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/20/world/asia/20qantas.html?ref=global-home

 

I am scheduled to fly on one of these next year....

[kenish]

I flew on one last year, nice aircraft that was a very different flight "experience". As an engineer and private pilot I've been following the investigation pretty closely and it will be interesting to see how it plays out. It's clear that everyone concerned was very, very, lucky. The damage caused by random fragments could have done far worse while the flying conditions, crew, and ground facilities on hand were exactly what was needed for a good outcome.

[Bill S]

I am going to paste the relevant portions of an email I received two days ago from a friend who is a retired airline pilot and has friends still in the industry. This information comes from a fellow in the aviation industry who has some aviation contacts in Australia. This is second hand information and unofficial, and because it tracks with much of the article linked above, I decided to post it here. This truly was a scary incident. It is an understatement so say that the flight deck crew had their hands full.

 

As one of my aviation buddies remarked, "It was like a simulator check (ride)!" In the sim, instructors can simulate all kinds of problems/malfunctions, but this situation probably outdid anything that in instructor could think of. I have deleted names of the crew/people involved.

 

Some acronyms you will see below:

 

"RAT"-Ram Air Turbine-a fan-like device that automatically deploys out in the airstream under certain conditions to provide limited hydraulic pressure and/or electricity. The RAT "propeller" on the A380 has a 1.6 meter diameter!

 

"FMS"- Flight Management System-computerized system & display designed to give pilots comprehensive information about the aircraft and to reduce workload. FMS' have, in essence, replaced flight engineers and navigators.

 

"ECAM": Electronic Centralized Aircraft Monitor-another electronic system that monitors aircraft systems and displays failures and can display recommended actions to deal with them.

 

"C of G", "C o G", or "CG": center of gravity-very important to maintain large aircraft CG within specificed parameters-typically done inflight by transferring fuel between fuel tanks as fuel is burned off to keep the aircraft "in balance".

 

"FO": First Officer

 

"SO": Second Officer

 

Disquieting indeed:

 

 

A380 incident - details now emerging & rather disquieting!!

 

 

A380 problems in detail

Here are just SOME of the problems the pilot had in Singapore last week aboard

QF32.... I won't bother mentioning the engine explosion!.... oops...

mentioned the engine explosion, sorry.....

 

* massive fuel leak in the left mid fuel tank (the beast has 11 tanks,

including in the horizontal stabilizer 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 landinggear

* 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 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 C of G

out-of-balance condition for landing. Yikes!

* and much more to come..........

 

Captain xxx 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 xxx in the 1st obs

seat (middle). He is a Check & Training Captain who was training yyyy to be one also. yyyy 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!

 

Also:

 

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 even that the auto transfer from Bus #1 fails - didn't happen.

& nbsp;

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 CoG 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 at the fire services were attending in great numbers.

 

8. The other comment from the source of the above was that the aeroplane did many things they simply didn't understand and/or failed to operate as expected.