QF-72 incident: A330, 40 injuries
JF Mezei
operated on a A330 aircraft. It was serious enough that the aircraft
landed near Exmouth (Learmonth) which is at the top west end of
australia. This is a small airport.
About 40 people were injured, some seriously.
http://www.atsb.gov.au/newsroom/2008/release/2008_40.aspx
##
...the pilots received electronic centralised aircraft monitoring
messages in the cockpit relating to some irregularity with the
aircraft's elevator control system.
The aircraft is reported to have departed level flight and climbed
approximately 300 ft, during which time the crew had initiated
non-normal checklist/response actions. The aircraft is then reported to
have abruptly pitched nose-down. During this sudden and significant
nose-down pitch, a number of passengers, cabin crew and loose objects
were thrown about the aircraft cabin, primarily in the rear of the
aircraft, resulting in a range of injuries to some cabin crew and
passengers.
The crew made a PAN PAN emergency broadcast to air traffic control,
advising that they had experienced flight control computer problems and
that some people had been injured, and they requested a clearance to
divert to and track direct to Learmonth. A few minutes later the crew
declared a MAYDAY and advised ATC of multiple injures including broken
bones and lacerations. The aircraft landed at about 1530 local time,
about 40 minutes after the start of the event.
##
When the news broke, it was assumed to be a turbulence event. Now, it
appears to be some glitch on the aircraft. However, out of curiosity, do
the hydraulics of an aircraft really move quickly enough to cause such
abrupt change in attitude to throw people around in the cabin ? I've
always seen widebodies as making gentle moves due to their mass and slow
movement of control surfaces.
Landing at Learmouth is interesting. The serious injuries were flowns
separately to Perth. So they would have gotten treatment faster if the
pilots had chosen to continue to Perth and land there. Seems to me that
pilots no longer trusted the aircraft (rightly so) and wanted it on
*any* ground ASAP.
Learmonth is a "bare" military runway with some civilian use (Skywest
Airlines). Runway length is 9997 feet. So I assume this is plenty for a
330. (airbus web site doesn't seem to include that info, anyone know
what is the recommended runway length for a 330-300 ? )
Is this going to be something similar to the Boeing 737 rudder mystery?
Hopefully, the more complete logs from the FDR will allow investigators
to get more information than those who had to go through crushed 737s on
the ground.
It is interesting that apparently, the computer would have detected an
anomaly before the elevator movements that cause injuries. Perhaps the
computer went into self test mode, forgot it was in flight and quickly
moved the elevators up and down to their maximum deflection ?
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A Guy Called Tyketto
Hash: SHA1
JF Mezei <jfmezei...@vaxination.ca> wrote:
> A day or two ago, Qantas has an "event" on a Perth-Singapore flight
> operated on a A330 aircraft. It was serious enough that the aircraft
> landed near Exmouth (Learmonth) which is at the top west end of
> australia. This is a small airport.
>
> Learmonth is a "bare" military runway with some civilian use (Skywest
> Airlines). Runway length is 9997 feet. So I assume this is plenty for a
> 330. (airbus web site doesn't seem to include that info, anyone know
> what is the recommended runway length for a 330-300 ? )
9997 ft. is more than enough. By comparison, when runways 1L
and 1R are in use at LAS, a B747-400, A340-300, B767s, and B777-200s
all can land and depart from the 1s. 1R is 9775ft, 1L is 8985ft.
BL.
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Brad Littlejohn | Email: tyk...@sbcglobal.net
Unix Systems Administrator, | tyk...@ozemail.com.au
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