BA 747 incident at Johannesburg

[speedbird591]

Following a tip from a friend last night, I found some info about this frightening incident that happened recently. A heavy 747-400 taking off from JNB (6,000 ft ASL) experienced spurious reverser warnings on engines 2 and 3 which caused partial retraction of the LE slats. The stick shaker activated at 12' AGL! :o

At 4,400 metres this is one of the longest commercial runways in the world and I remember that we nearly always used all of it. So to lose a lift device right at the end must rate as one of a pilot's worst nightmares!

http://avherald.com/h?article=4198598d&opt=0

Ian

[DaveB]

Hi Ian..

One of the Brooklands team emailed me about this the week before last. I was going to post here and forgot :brick:



ATB

DaveB :tab:

[speedbird591]

One of the Brooklands team emailed me about this the week before last. I was going to post here and forgot :brick:

If you'd told me before I could have had my nightmares and been over it by now!

[DaveB]

Yeh.. sri mate ;-)

I know it's not directly related but here's the latest snippet I've been sent.. followed by the words 'I presume the crew are now unemployed' .. http://www.atsb.gov.au/publications/inv ... Prelim.pdf

It's a Scarebus tail strike btw ;-)

ATB

DaveB :tab:

[speedbird591]

.. followed by the words 'I presume the crew are now unemployed' ..

I've just been given a pile of Flight Internationals. April 13th edition states

Emirates confirms that the pilots flying an Airbus A340-500 ..... have left the airline, but declines to give any further explanation.

You know, I've pondered for a long time that with human error being the cause of most accidents, why are we so reluctant to switch over completely to computers?

Ian

[DaveB]

Ah yes.. pilotless passenger aircraft. I can just imagine how popular this idea would be

ATB

DaveB :tab:

[speedbird591]

Ah yes.. pilotless passenger aircraft. I can just imagine how popular this idea would be

I could be the only passenger. With half a dozen stewardesses to pamper to my every whim. And a robotic voice from a locked cupboard up the front saying "input required, input required ..."

Ian

[Prop Jockey]

I know it's not directly related but here's the latest snippet I've been sent.. followed by the words 'I presume the crew are now unemployed' .. :

As are the engineers responsible for the demise of this Convair

Scary !

Cheers

Rich

[DaveB]

Deary me :-( Not the first time and I doubt it'll be the last either.

ATB

DaveB :tab:

[Chris Trott]

Sadly, reversed control or trim cables has been the cause of more than a few accidents. What surprises me is that the condition wasn't noticed by an increase in control forces as trim was applied. I used to work for that company and the maintenance was typically pretty good, especially as the airline operated under a Part 121 certificate (same as many of the charter and cargo operators in the US, including Leif's employer if I'm not mistaken). One of the things I was trained for as a private pilot was recognition of reversed trim and how to deal with it, but I know that in the heat of the moment, such things may be forgotten.

Sadly, no amount of checks will completely prevent things like these from happening. I know of at least 2 occasions where FAA Inspectors missed things on major inspections that were later found by a company's Quality Control people before flight. Everyone is human, and thus everyone can unfortunately make mistakes.