Vietnam Airlines close call at Munich 15 Aug 2026

[RooFlyer]

Juan Browne discusses the report as revealed in Vietnamese newspapers, noting that both sets of main landing gears/trucks had burst tyres, indicating a braking problem with both sets. Lots of discussion of the brakes and maybe even 'human factors' at play.

 

[jb747]

Flex or "derated" thrusts became very common with "digital" FADEC - full authority digital engine control or similar depending on engine manufacturer.

They were common before FADEC.

Prior to that the I think the flight engineers would have had to manually calculate it using engine performance charts.

In QF it was worked out by the SO, and then checked by the Captain. If no SO, then Capt/FO. FEOs weren't involved (that I can recall, anyway)

It was to prolong engine life and reduce maintenance because full thrust takeoffs was associated with extreme internal temperatures. So it was used when departing with less payload, longer runways and favourable takeoff conditions like headwind, cool weather

I think the 747-400 had them but not the classics.

Nope...all of them.

But, the level of derate has increased over the years, especially with the advent of laptops/ipads to do the calculations. One rule that limited the derate was that there was never to be a thrust increase at clean up, i.e. the derate was never to be to a power setting less than the climb thrust you intended to use. That 'rule' is gone, and a power increase off a long runway is common. All of this has served to disconnect the pilots from the thrust settings, and even acceleration.

The opposite of derate thrust would be thrust augmentation using water injection which reduced internal temperatures and increased mass airflow allowing more fuel . Not used these days but the 747 classics had them

Ah, the joy of a wet take off. Working out the take off data for that was an exercise, as you had to consider loss of any number of water feeds to the engines. Could you continue after the loss of one or two? And then all four overtemp lights on during to roll.

Unrelated but another incident at MUC..

Lufthansa A380 Lands Short Of Runway, Damages Lights In Munich Just Days After A 787 Overran

No passengers were injured and an investigation is underway.

simpleflying.com

About as unrelated as you can get, unless the gravity at the end of that runway is somehow higher than anywhere else....