Engine bang halts Qantas take-off

[NM]

From news.com.au:

A QANTAS passenger plane taking off from Hong Kong was brought to a screeching halt after a pilot heard "a loud bang" from the engine.

QF30, a 747 Jumbo with 313 passengers onboard, was heading to Melbourne from Hong Kong International Airport at 9.55am local time yesterday (1:55pm AEDT yesterday) when it came to an abrupt halt.

Seems the quoted passengers may not really have reported the situation accurately:

Clasina Cue, a Melbourne grandmother and former airport worker, was aboard along with her friend, Lisa Taliana, also from Melbourne with both returning from a Hong Kong holiday.

Both say the plane was nearing taking off speed.

“The plane's nose was a bit up in the air,” Ms Cue said.

Ms Taliana was not sure on that point.

“There was a big bang and a shudder. The pilot slammed the brakes and stopped the plane. It had been close to the point of no return.”

If the nose was indeed in the air, the aircraft had already reached VR (rotation speed) and its most unlikely that a 744 carrying 9 hours of fuel and 313 passengers will have V1 greater than VR. Once past V1, the take-off will not be aborted even if an engine fails. so its most unlikely the nose was "a bit up in the air".

Would seem like another case of following correct procedure for the situation encountered.

 

[munitalP]

Yep, and sitting in the back of a 744 (God help it never happens to me!) I would expect that the nose would feel high, like the front wheels were off the ground as reported. I agree it would be a task to haul 400 odd tonnes of metal to a screeching stop if the aircraft had reached VR - I would expect too that even HKG's runways wouldn't be long enough and the 744 would have become a cruise ship...


Mr!
:shock:

 

[Slats7]

Yawnnnnnnnn.

 

[Sprucegoose]

A QANTAS passenger plane taking off from Hong Kong was brought to a screeching halt after a pilot heard "a loud bang" from the engine.
QF30, a 747 Jumbo with 313 passengers onboard, was heading to Melbourne from Hong Kong International Airport at 9.55am local time yesterday (6:55am AEDT yesterday) when it came to an abrupt halt


to further quote the story..........'Being a retired 747 pilot and ex maintenance engineer I can tell you what happened with some degree of certainty, the noise is an engine turbine or compressor blade failure, on the other hand engine surges( by defimition) at High power are very rare almost unheard of. The abort was below V1 which in turn is below rotate speed at which piont the aircraft and hence nose wheel is raised to rotate angle so the nose gear was still on the ground. If the fault occured above V1 speed the takeoff would have continued on available engine power. All takoffs are calculated for a 3 v/s 4 engines operating AFTER V1 speed'

Cheers

SPRUCE.