An Airbus 360-600 plane due to be delivered to Etihad Airways crashed during ground tests at Toulouse-Blagnac Airport (TLS) before it ever left the plant (that airport is part of Airbus Industrie complex). According to a report by Aviation Safety Net, "the wheels were not chocked. Some engine and brake tests were carried out and all four engines were on high power for about three minutes. The aircraft began to move forward and hit a concrete blast fence thirteen seconds later. The nose went up and through a blast fence. Five persons were injured."
According to a slightly different report by Germany's Spiegel, "A crash during the testing of a new Airbus jet has left 10 people injured, three seriously, in the French city of Toulouse. French government officials reported that the nine people on board, including three seriously, and one person on the ground were injured."
In any case, click on the Aviation Safety Net and/or Spiegel link. The images are amazing. I for one am glad that pilots tend to be a lot more methodical than the mechanics, technicians and/or engineers who were involved in this November 15 test. Etihad is the airline of the United Arab Emirates -- and no, I never heard of it before either.
Shortly after the incident, BBC reported that "those hurt belonged to a firm contracted to test the plane before delivery." Does Blackwater test aircraft?, I wonder.
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Your right about the photos. They are something. If this had happened at the Boeing plant, it would of been all over the news.
ReplyDeleteYou had never heard of Ethiad? Somewhat surprising for a travel writer; while I haven't flown on them, I have certainly run across their name on travel websites and blogs...
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, what I have never heard of is the Airbus 360-600.
(make that Etihad, of course)
ReplyDeleteOliver - Indeed I'm a travel writer, but I don't specialize in covering the air travel industry. Also, I don't pretend to be an authority on every part of the world or to be familiar with every airline in the skies. Etihad Airways only started flying in Nov 2003, and I didn't know about it. I do now.
ReplyDeleteIf this had not been such a weird incident, I probably wouldn't have even written a post.
You typoed the name of the airline and caught it yourself. I typoed the model number of the aircraft -- perhaps a touch of number dyslexia -- and didn't catch it myself. It was an Airbus 340-600. Thanks for pointing that out.
As one of my French countrymen put it, "the plane crashed as it tried to break the sound barrier!" What a truism...
ReplyDeleteBTW, since a pic is worth a 1,000 words, go to http://cus/graphics/imageview.php?image=http://capnbob.us/blog/wp-content/uploads/2007/11/blast-fence.JPG
and you'll get an idea of the damage... From now on, I'll stick to my paraglider!
After reading over the story and seeing the photo of the damaged airliner it looks like someone may have disabled some kind of safety feature on the airline.
ReplyDeleteEveryone knows you have to taxi the airline to the pad and then set the brakes with the use of chalks under the tires but what has me perplex is the fact that the brakes did not hold the Airliner in place, with or without chalks.
So, what caused the brakes to not operate correctly?
These newer airliners are computer controlled now; they have alarms and blinking lights; right?
Well, if they were doing “engine and brake tests” on a Airliner and these test “were carried out and all four engines were on high power for about three minutes” then maybe, just maybe this Airliner thought it was in the air and was trying to fly.
So, when the Airliner started to thrust forward; why did not the Crew doing the “testing” not throttle back and cut the power to the engines?
Oh, who was doing the testing?
Did the new airliner come with a new manual and did the testing crew read the new manual?
There are too many questions here and no answers, so it sounds like someone is covering for someone.
I just received an email of pics. Military budy sent stating that arabic crew was doing the testing for delivery. The "bells and alarms" were going off and they pulled a circuit breaker that affects air/ground logic to silence them. Unfortunately, a safety feature overrides the brakes in the air mode to prevent landing with brakes on. I'm more familiar with Boing products, so can't confirm validity, but the pics speak loudly.
ReplyDelete