A340 crash in france....

[Baradium]

http://www.news.com.au/travel/story/0,23483,22768585-27977,00.html

Someone is in trouble.

From reading the article, they were doing an engine runup...

[Frank N. O.]

I already saw this article earlier on Racerplanet.com where Chris the australian Concorde-simmer posted it, also saying that this is the second A340-fuselage ruined in one week.

My best wishes for the fast and full recovery of the injured people and then that the cause to the accident is found and hopefully prevented from happening again.

Frank

[Rooster Cruiser]

  Does Airbus not bother putting chocks under the wheels before performing engine runups?!?!?!   It seems so simple...

[BrianGMFS]

WELLL, I've never seen the guys next door at Pratt & Whitney use chocks on runups, they do however use an unobstructed taxiway so if the brakes fail they have some room to stop.

Now if they could have remembered that one time not to leave an entry carpet on the wing of a Beechjet during a full power engine run, that would be a great help. We heard the bang all the way across the airport when the left engine ingested the carpet at 100% power, started to shed parts and then fragged the aft fuselage and the other engine I heard something about a six figure repair bill. Then there was the guy three years ago at my airport who forgot to use the little landing gear handle on his bosses Socata TBM-700.... That plane left on a truck.

[TheSoccerMom]

Allo Brian, you bring up a good point..  I don't know of anyone who uses chocks in doing runups..  none of my mechanic buddies here do.  But I am not familiar with the airline end of the universe, so am not sure what would pass as standard on heavy aircraft.

Bummer about the ingested carpet!  It doesn't take much.  Personally, I hate when the line people run out with such speed, and flop that red rug down on the tarmac.  It's just another foreign item to suck into a prop.  But, "normal" pax (in the world of charter and shiny shoes, anyway) seem to love that crap.....

[airtac]

Then there was the guy three years ago at my airport who forgot to use the little landing gear handle on his bosses Socata TBM-700.... That plane left on a truck.

Oh, he used that little handle alright--when he brought the gear UP---

[Rooster Cruiser]

A friend of mine emailed me some more detailed pics of this "mishap" if you can call it that.

Brace yourselves, friends... It's not a pretty sight.

[Rooster Cruiser]

More Etihad A340 pics...

This airplane is a total loss, and it never left the ground!  If you look at this first pic, you can see just how fast it was going when it impacted the barrier wall...  marks were left by both left engines.

Such a pity... <shaking head>

[PiperGirl]

 

[Frank N. O.]

Ditto! That should effectively destroy any speculation about that frame's existance.

Any info on what speed it hit the barrier at?

Frank

[Baradium]

Computer malfunction?

IIRC even the brakes are computer controlled on those things... so if a computer locked up maybe the engines were stuck powered up and then they lost brakes?

Pure conjecture, but ouch either way...


The articles' pictures didn't look really all that bad... with those it's amazing that the crew made it out.

[Fabo]

I rest surprised nobody posted the official report:

FROM : AIRBUS FLIGHT SAFETY DEPARTMENT TOULOUSE
SUBJECT: A340-600 - MSN 856 - ACCIDENT IN PRODUCTION OUR REF.: F-WWCJ AIT 2 DATED 20th OF NOVEMBER 2007 PREVIOUS REF: F-WWCJ AIT 1 DATED 16th OF NOVEMBER 2007

THIS AIT IS AN UPDATE OF PREVIOUS AIT N°1 CONCERNING THE A340-600 PRODUCTION AIRCRAFT MSN 856 INVOLVED IN AN ACCIDENT IN AIRBUS PRODUCTION FACILITIES IN TOULOUSE ON THE 15TH NOVEMBER 2007 AT 17:00 LOCAL TIME.

THE FOLLOWING IS THE SEQUENCE OF EVENTS ACCORDING TO THE RECORDERS, WHICH HAS BEEN APPROVED FOR RELEASE BY THE FRENCH INVESTIGATION AUTHORITIES (BEA).

FOR ABOUT 3 MINUTES BEFORE THE END OF THE EVENT, ALL FOUR ENGINES EPR WAS BETWEEN 1.24 AND 1.26 WITH PARKING BRAKE ON AND WITHOUT GROUND CHOCKS.
THE ALTERNATE BRAKE PRESSURE WAS NORMAL. (WITH PARKING BRAKE ON, BRAKE PRESSURE IS SUPPLIED BY ALTERNATE).

13 SECONDS BEFORE THE IMPACT THE AIRCRAFT STARTED TO MOVE. WITHIN 1 OR 2 SECONDS THE CREW APPLIED BRAKE PEDAL INPUTS AND SELECTED PARKING BRAKE OFF. THESE ACTIONS LED THE NORMAL BRAKE PRESSURE TO INCREASE TO ITS NORMAL VALUE.

2 SECONDS PRIOR BEFORE THE IMPACT, ALL 4 ENGINE THRUST LEVERS WERE SELECTED TO IDLE.
THE AIRCRAFT IMPACTED THE CONTAINMENT WALL AT A GROUND SPEED OF 30 KTS.

THERE IS NO EVIDENCE OF ANY AIRCRAFT SYSTEM OR ENGINE MALFUNCTION.
AIRBUS REMINDS ALL OPERATORS TO STRICTLY ADHERE TO AMM PROCEDURES WHEN PERFORMING ENGINE GROUND RUNS
ENGINE GROUND RUNS AT HIGH POWER ARE NORMALLY CONDUCTED ON A SINGLE ENGINE WITH THE ENGINE IN THE SAME POSITION ON THE OPPOSITE WING OPERATED AT A LIMITED THRUST SETTING TO AVOID DAMAGE TO THE AIFRAME
WHEEL CHOCKS ARE TO BE INSTALLED THROUGHOUT THE TEST.
YANNICK MALINGE
VICE PRESIDENT FLIGHT SAFETY
AIRBUS

[airtac]

"all four engines EPR 1.24 to1.26" Sounds like somebody is in the unemployment line today

[Rooster Cruiser]

"all four engines EPR 1.24 to1.26" Sounds like somebody is in the unemployment line today

No kidding.  I don't know of any large transport category airplanes that have strong enough brakes to withstand a full-power runup.  Even most GA airplanes will really have their brakes put to the test by something like this.  So these guys weren't following procedure.  No chocks, and running up all engines instead of one-two at a time.  Too bad...

[Frank N. O.]

"all four engines EPR 1.24 to1.26" Sounds like somebody is in the unemployment line today

What's EPR again? Does those figures mean 124-126% of normal max power?
I always did wonder how wheels could hold thrust from big planes when they did engine tests (as I asked about in the other sub-forum recently). I'm not one to comment about subjects I'm not skilled in but having all four engines on such an aircraft run on full power at the same time with just wheelbrakes to hold it sounds totally braindead!

Frank