Boeing 7777 total power failure

[Oddball]

A Boeing 777 lost all power on finals as it was about to land at london heathrow no fatalites, just touched down inside the perimiter fence and on the numbers as it flew in from china

[Mike]

just saw that on the news...

good thing I didn't fly over London like I often do yesterday....

anybody know anything yet?

[TheSoccerMom]

I thought of you, Mike, when I read on the news that they had "crash-landed"...  I'm also glad you were not there!!   

The only possible cause mentioned so far that I have found, is wind shear...  but you know how that goes, it's all just conjecture at this point....   

There was a comment that they had just missed a car park, etc., and so this was a GREAT outcome.....   

[Fabo]

Having a failed elec, engines out and gear up... would not want to be there, kudos to the pilots.

[Mike]

windshear!!

didn't think about it, but looks more plausible than a total-everything-failure-at-the-same-time . . .

[Rooster Cruiser]

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,323420,00.html

Fox news quotes another pilot suggesting windshear.  Dunno about the rest, but they do say the gear was down and was torn off.

LONDON —  A British Airways jet carrying 152 people crash landed Thursday at Heathrow airport, tearing its underbelly, damaging its wings and skidding to a halt before emergency chutes deployed. All aboard escaped safely, but eight people were hurt.

The crash landing caused major delays at Europe's busiest airport, temporarily halting departures and arrivals while emergency crews worked at the scene.

Fire trucks surrounded the Boeing 777, which had taken off from Beijing, after it landed early in the afternoon, spraying fire retardant foam around the aircraft.

• Click here to view photos.

Two of the plane's giant wheel units were ripped from the craft during the landing and could be seen on grass near the runway.

Passenger Paul Venter said the trouble started as the aircraft was about to land.

"The wheels came out and went for touchdown, and the next moment we just dropped. I couldn't tell you how far," he said.

"I didn't speak to the pilot, but I saw him, and he looked very pale, but there was no communication in the cabin," Venter said.

RelatedPhoto Essays
Britain Plane Mishap The plane's wheels appeared to collapse as it came down in the grass in front of the airport's southern runway, witness John Rowland told the British Broadcasting Corp.

"It crashed into the runway, debris was flying everywhere, there was an enormous bang and it skidded sideways," he said.

London Ambulance Service said eight people had been taken to a hospital with minor injuries.

The accident at one of Heathrow's two runways occurred just before a plane carrying British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and a delegation of business leaders, including Virgin Chairman Richard Branson, was about to depart for China. The prime minister's plane was about half a mile away.

Planes were still taking off and landing on Heathrow's northern runway, air traffic control company Nats said. Some other flights were diverted to other airports, Heathrow said on its Web site.

The Air Accident Investigation Branch was investigating, British Airways Chief Executive Willie Walsh told reporters, adding the airline didn't want to speculate on the cause.

The passengers had been taken to a center, where airline staff were looking after them, Walsh said.

"The customers on board the aircraft are generally in good spirits, I know they are anxious to get back to their friends," Walsh said. "They are being interviewed by the police until all the relevant details have been taken."

It was the first accident involving the Boeing 777 since the plane entered service in 1995, said Boeing spokeswoman Liz Verdier in Seattle.

The Boeing 777, one of 42 in the BA fleet, was relatively new at six years old, Walsh said.

"The captain of the aircraft is one of our most experienced and has been flying with us for nearly 20 years," he said.

Emergency workers surrounded the plane and firefighters sprayed fire retardant foam as a precaution as the 16-member crew evacuated passengers on inflatable chutes.

Passenger Jerome Ensinck told the BBC that he at first thought the plane had made a hard landing.

"There was no indication that we were going to have a bad landing," he said. "When we hit the ground it was extremely rough."

"Then the emergency exits were opened and we were all told we should go through as quickly as possible, and the moment I was away from the plane I started to realize that the undercarriage was away, and we had missed the runway, Ensinck said.

"Now I realize I've had a close call," he said.

Robert Cullemore of Aviation Economics, a London-based aviation consultancy, said a pilot from a competing airline told him officials believed the cause of the accident was wind shear, a sudden gust of wind.

"It can happen anytime anywhere and if it happens you just hope there is no airplane nearby," Cullemore said.

He said the pilot kept the plane in the air long enough to prevent a disastrous outcome.

"If it had landed 200 meters (656 feet) shorter than it did, it may have hit perimeter fence and obviously some other buildings and the car park, clearly we would be dealing with fatalities and obvious damage," Cullemore said.

[leiafee]

Nyah, the undershoot is there for a reason...

The evac procedures worked, the aircraft stayed broadly in one piece and didn't catch fire, and no one got worse than a bumped head.  That's a good result in my book.  I'd get on a triple7 tomorrow on that evidence.

On the other hand a probably slightly frazzled just-made-a-forced-landing pilot allegedly burbling something about power failures to a towtruck driver which was passed on second or third had to a reporter is somewhat less convincing...

[undatc]

Is it bad that all that went through my head when I saw the pictures was, "wow, thats expensive."

With a price tag of 200-280 million the 777 isnt your granddads Cessna...

[BrianGMFS]

Another nail in the coffin of the Boeing Airbus debate.... Compare the pictures of the BA 777 hitting the ground at landing speed to the ones of the A340 that hit a wall at 30 kts... I admit that the two accidents were totally different situations..... But I still follow the adage If it aint' Boeing I aint' going  Substitute Canadair and MD/Douglas for Boeing into that as well... while I hear the quirks that the Brazillian made birds have when our techs at work have to go do a gate call can make you wonder. the E-190's that Jet Blue flies out of Burlington to Orlando take over 10 minutes to "Boot" up once power is on the airplane, if you bump any of the the controls before the plane boots up you have to shut it down and do it all again 

We had a CRJ in the shop over the weekend, had a gear disagree (nose wheel wouldn't come up) but it still locked down. changed out a valve, put it on jacks, swung the gear 4-5 times and she was good to go. I gotta post the pics of the CRJ out on the ramp on jacks with the wheels up.... Kinda erie


Brian

[Rooster Cruiser]

E-190's that Jet Blue flies out of Burlington to Orlando take over 10 minutes to "Boot" up once power is on the airplane, if you bump any of the the controls before the plane boots up you have to shut it down and do it all again

This may be part of the reason ERJ's and E-190's are referred to as "WSCOD's".  That is an acronym for "Whistling $hitCan Of Death".   

[Oddball]

saw the news this morning at work the plane was fully configured for landing, it tore the starboard gear off and pushed the port gear through the wing, WIND SHEAR MY A**E!! if it happened about a minute ealier it would of been over central london

[Baradium]

Another nail in the coffin of the Boeing Airbus debate.... Compare the pictures of the BA 777 hitting the ground at landing speed to the ones of the A340 that hit a wall at 30 kts... I admit that the two accidents were totally different situations..... But I still follow the adage If it aint' Boeing I aint' going  Substitute Canadair and MD/Douglas for Boeing into that as well... while I hear the quirks that the Brazillian made birds have when our techs at work have to go do a gate call can make you wonder. the E-190's that Jet Blue flies out of Burlington to Orlando take over 10 minutes to "Boot" up once power is on the airplane, if you bump any of the the controls before the plane boots up you have to shut it down and do it all again 

We had a CRJ in the shop over the weekend, had a gear disagree (nose wheel wouldn't come up) but it still locked down. changed out a valve, put it on jacks, swung the gear 4-5 times and she was good to go. I gotta post the pics of the CRJ out on the ramp on jacks with the wheels up.... Kinda erie


Brian

What about the CRJ that had the landing gear that indicated down when it wasn't? 



As far as this...   a friend of mine who flies 767s conjectured that maybe flying into a large flock of birds could have done it... but he said it'd have taken a LOT of birds to stall a turbofan with a 13' diameter.


He said he saw a short video clip of the plane right before/at the crash.   He said it was at an extremely high AOA, behind the power curve.  It would look like that in a windshear situation, but other factors could lead to that as well.

The GE engines on the 777 spin up faster than the pratts, but engines that large still take a long time to spool up.  If they brought the power to idle too early and waited too long to correct it, that might have had an effect (this is from me, not him... he just commented about the spool up times).

[Rooster Cruiser]

What about the CRJ that had the landing gear that indicated down when it wasn't?

That was a WSCOD.  There's a pic of it somewhere in this forum on a thread.

[Fabo]

Sorry about that gear up, was my misinterpretation obviously

[Mike]

saw the news this morning at work the plane was fully configured for landing, it tore the starboard gear off and pushed the port gear through the wing, WIND SHEAR MY A**E!! if it happened about a minute ealier it would of been over central london

what are you talking about?

when do you think wind shear will be most dangerous ??
on approach in full landing config. ?
or over London while still flying at speed?