Smoke fills cabin before plane dumps fuel in Port Phillip Bay

[NYCguy]

It was close - very very close - why isn't it headline news?

BBC World have been running it, as have NHK.

 

[Nigelinoz]

A friend just rang and made an interesting comment,he reckons this was just like BA 038 in reverse,only instead of just missing the boundary fence on landing it just missed it on take off.
I agree though with munital p,I think this deserves much more coverage than it's had,I'm not one who believes in the conspiracy against Qantas theory but I wouldn't bet money on the amount of coverage it would have had if it was QF 407 instead of EK407.

 

[straitman]

To be honest, I always thought most take-offs were done with the engines cranked up a fair way. The difference in this case is more likely that the plane was lower to the ground hence would sound louder.

oz_mark,

They will often not be at max power though. They will be at a calculated figure for the conditions and weight.

 

[Keith009]

After reading this thread and the pprune one, I'm now convinced that this was a much more serious incident than I'd originally thought! Those pax sure are lucky to be around today to tell the tale.

 

[Evan]

After reading this thread and the pprune one, I'm now convinced that this was a much more serious incident than I'd originally thought! Those pax sure are lucky to be around today to tell the tale.

Any plane that hits anything at the end of a runway like lights or navigation instruments is very close to becoming a fireball if you ask me. But its like almost having a car accident, miss by a mm is same as miss by a meter really... ok so maybe a few mm of paint were missing also

 

[oz_mark]

oz_mark,

They will often not be at max power though. They will be at a calculated figure for the conditions and weight.

Yes, I did some further reading which indicated just that (plus the settings on the A350!), but I still don't think a human ear is going to be able to distinguish whether it is at full power or not.

 

[taswegian77]

for some to say this is not major, get your heads out of the sand. I have experienced flying on a A330 when one of the engines just stopped working, which left us with one engine and let say as calm as I was on the outside I was bloody scared on the inside. I can only imagine how bad it would have been to feel the plane hit the ground. When you travel a lot you also get to appreciate roughly where the plane will leave the ground, or at least know it should be off the ground by a certain point.

On a side note I flew in on QF497 from SYD that night and saw all the drama on the tarmac, a hell of a lot of lights and the plane parked at the end of the runway. Our captain said we might have to stop our taxi for emergency vehicles for a emirates plane but nothing else, but it looked big and obviously the dark made the lights brighter.

 

[NM]

for some to say this is not major, get your heads out of the sand.

Indeed as more information (and misinformation ) comes to light, the seriousness of this situation is becoming more apparent. The ATSB report will make very sobering reading, I expect.

 

[oz_mark]

Indeed as more information (and misinformation ) comes to light, the seriousness of this situation is becoming more apparent. The ATSB report will make very sobering reading, I expect.

It is interesting the lack of media coverage of what apears to have come very close to having been a disaster. I think more news print was devoted to Qantas have a blocked toilet than this. Anyway, there was a report in the Herald Sun this morning (which when given the hysterical way that Qantas incidents were treated, this seems a mild report!):

AIR safety experts will investigate claims the Emirates plane at the centre of last Friday's emergency was carrying too much weight.
There were also reports yesterday that the plane missed a brick building on takeoff by just 50cm.

Emirates airbus weight issue under scrutiny | Herald Sun

 

[docjames]

What's with the missed a building by 50cm - huh??

 

[Flashback]

What's with the missed a building by 50cm - huh??

It's a new type of journalism called "sensationalism" - have you not heard of it?

 

[jakeseven7]

It is interesting the lack of media coverage of what apears to have come very close to having been a disaster. I think more news print was devoted to Qantas have a blocked toilet than this. Anyway, there was a report in the Herald Sun this morning (which when given the hysterical way that Qantas incidents were treated, this seems a mild report!):




Emirates airbus weight issue under scrutiny | Herald Sun

i believe a qantas flight running 5 minutes late would attract bigger headlines than this one

wonder what happened... someone added up wrong?

 

[Nigelinoz]

i believe a qantas flight running 5 minutes late would attract bigger headlines than this one

I don't know that I would go quite that far but there certainly does appear to be a unusual lack of general media interest in this story.
unusual in the sense that by now I would have expected to see the
'Passenger tells of plane horror " sort of story but even they seem lacking in this one,however I did hear that there were a couple of film crews around the hangars at Melbourne airport yesterday so maybe there is more to come.

 

[NM]

What's with the missed a building by 50cm - huh??

The antenna at the end of runway 16 that provide the localiser signals and located several hundred metres off the end of the runway surface, were broken off about 50cm above their base. I don't know if it has been determined yet if these antenna were snapped due to impact with the aircraft itself or if they were damaged by the jetwash as the aircraft flew very low over them.

The brick building I assume the report is describing is adjacent to the runway and is the building that provides the electronics, power etc for the localiser transmitters. The building is approx 80m to the west of the end of runway 16 centreline and aligned with the antennas that were broken.

There are reports of tracks left in the ground by the undercarriage as it departed the end of the runway. However, I have not seen photographs of the tracks and some people say they were from jetwash and not the actual wheels.

So if the antennas were in fact impacted by the aircraft, then part of the aircraft was as low as 50cm off the ground, and hence the solid material mounting the antenna (bricks???) at a point several hundred metres beyond the end of the runway. If they were damaged by jetwash, and the track marks in the ground at the end of the runway were also caused by jetwash, then its difficult to estimate just how high the aircraft was as it went over the localiser antenna. But either way, I suggest it was dangerously low with no room for margin.

Have a look on Google Maps at the end of RW16 to see the building (to west of the runway centreline) and antenna line (off the end of the runway).

 

[munitalP]

Have a look at the graphic I done, it shows across the bottom the google earth pic - it is reasonably scaled as well...

the yellow horizontal numbers are meters from the end of the runway

the yellow vertical numbers (right) is the height in meters above the runway

the yelow (left) numbers is the rate of climb in degrees, vertical being 90 degrees

 

[Nigelinoz]

Latest word around the traps is that the two pilots concerned have
resigned from the airline and that the aircraft has substantial rear pressure bulkhead damage and will be out of action for at least six months.

 

[serfty]

Pilots Have resigned

That appears to be the case:

http://www.flightglobal.com/article...-resign-after-emirates-a340-500-accident.html

 

[docjames]

So I presume they do a temporary reapir and fly it somewhere for repair (rather than repair at MEL)?

 

[Evan]

So I presume they do a temporary reapir and fly it somewhere for repair (rather than repair at MEL)?

Maybe, they are pretty skilled at doing repairs here if they fly in the team, its a very short ferry to the QF repair base.
Otherwise its a non presurised flight to say Manila.... long flight at low altitude.
E

 

[mannej]

Having watched a doco after Air Crash Investigation the other day, Rear Pressure Bulkhead repairs aren't an easy thing, especially after what the results of a faulty repair in the case of JL123.
I know Boeing send out a team to do the repairs where the incidents occured, I don't know if Airbus are the same. If that is the case, it would seem the plane in question won't be leaving Melbourne any time soon