Qantas

[Aviador]

Qantas pilots forget to lower the wheels in botched landing at Sydney airport

Comments (35) Add to My Stories Two Qantas pilots have been suspended after a Boeing 767 came within 700ft of landing at Sydney airport before they realised the wheels had not been lowered.

The airline has launched an investigation into the incident and the pilots are due to be interviewed by air safety investigators on Friday.
The flight from Melbourne was forced to do a second lap above the airport on October 26 after a cockpit alarm went off as the Boeing prepared to touch down, the Australian Transport Safety Bureau said.

Error: Two pilots have been stood down after the were forced to abort a landing at 700ft because they had not lowered the Boeing 767's wheels
Investigators are understood to be looking at possible human error and a communication breakdown between the first officer and captain about who was lowering the undercarriage, according to The Australian.
It quotes a former Boeing 767 pilot as saying that a crew on an instrument approach would normally start lowering the undercarriage when the plane was between 2,000ft and 1,500ft from the ground in order to ensure that the aircraft was stable and configured to land by the time it was down to 1,000ft.
In visual conditions, the former pilot said, the aircraft needed to be stable by 500ft, but lowering the gear at 700ft or even at 1,000ft was still far too late.

According to the International Air Transport Association, problems with landing gear resulted in 15 per cent of airline 'hull-loss' accidents last year.

Qantas said flight safety was never at risk but it had stood the pilots down pending the bureau's inquiry into whether human error was to blame.

'This is an extremely rare event, but one we have taken seriously,' the airline said in a statement.

'The flight crew knew all required procedures but there was a brief communication breakdown. They responded quickly to the situation... the cockpit alarm coincided with their actions.'

The ATSB said: 'Passing 700 feet on approach into Sydney, the crew commenced a missed approach due to the aircraft being incorrectly configured for landing.'

The bureau's air safety spokesman Ian Sangston said the 'too low gear' alert sounded because the landing gear had not been lowered, but said it was too early to speculate on the cause.

The incident follows the revocation last week of the licences of two US pilots who overshot their destination by some 150 miles (240 kilometres) while distracted.

Sangston said the ATSB was also investigating an incident in which the autopilot briefly disconnected on board a Jetstar flight between Japan and the Gold Coast as it passed through stormy conditions on October 29.

'My understanding is that there was some sort of problem with the information being provided to the pilots,' Sangston said.

Qantas' budget offshoot Jetstar said early indications were that the Airbus A330's airspeed sensing system was momentarily impaired, and several parts had been replaced on the aircraft before it was allowed to resume flying.

The error messages were similar to those reported from an Air France Airbus A330 jet which mysteriously plunged into the Atlantic in May, taking the lives of all 228 people on board.

But Sangston said the ATSB was yet to examine the black box data

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldne ... z0WH7UIfPT

 

[News Guru]

Qantas A380 landing: Airlines were warned in August over engine safety

Firefighters spray the Qantas A380 Airbus which suffered massive engine failure early yesterday with 459 people on board. Photograph: Vivek Prakash/Reuters

Two airlines grounded their fleets of Airbus A380 superjumbos today following an emergency landing by a Qantas plane after one of its engines blew apart in mid-air, damaging a wing and showering debris on the ground below.

It emerged tonight that in August Europe's air safety watchdog issued an alert about abnormal wear inside the British-made Rolls Royce engines used on the huge, double-decker double decker planes, though experts said it was too early to tell if the two were connected.

Flight QF32 from London to Sydney had just taken off from a stopover in Singapore when the plane suffered what the Qantas chief executive, Alan Joyce, described as a "significant engine failure".

Passengers described a loud bang and a flash of flame. They then saw part of the casing of engine apparently stripped away, and a small hole in the wing. Dozens of pieces of debris, believed to be from the engine, were found on the Indonesian island of Batam. "There were flames, yellow flames came out, and debris came off. You could see black things shooting through the smoke, like bits of debris," said passenger Rosemary Hegardy.

While the plane, carrying 433 passengers and 26 crew, was able to circle to dump fuel before landing safely at Singapore's Changi airport shortly before midday local time, Qantas – famous, thanks to the film Rain Man, for its enviable safety record – announced it was grounding its A380s. Experts from the UK Air Accidents Investigation Branch flew to Singapore yesterday to help the inquiry.

"We do take our safety reputation unbelievably seriously and we're not going to take risks with passenger safety," Joyce said. "As a precaution, we're suspending flights of the A380." Early this morning Singapore Airlines said its A380 services would continue as technical checks had been completed. Lufthansa was conducting checks without interrupting flights. Two other airlines that fly the A380 use other engines.

The incident – the most serious safety scare involving the world's biggest airliner in its three years of service – is a particular worry for Rolls Royce, which makes the Trent 900 engines fitted to most A380s at its Derby factory. The company, which lost more than 5% of its share price today, said it was working with airlines to see what went wrong. It refused to discuss the directive issued by the European Aviation Safety Agency in August which warned that scrutiny of stripped Trent 900s had found that unusual wear on splines used to secure the turbines could lead to engine failure coupled with "oil migration and oil fire".

Source

 

[Aviador]

What does everybody make of recent events with regards to the Airbus A380 Qantas engine failure?

It is my view that the press seem to be making a mountain out of a mole hill with this story. Clearly it is a concern if an engine suffers from a catastrophic failure but this is by no means the first time an aircraft engine has had problems leading to it been shut down during a flight.

Obviously, had I been on the flight I would have been filling my pants for sure but I do wonder how long this story would have dragged out had it been related to a an older aircraft model or dare I even say it a Boeing aircraft?

 

[News Guru]

Qantas: 40 engines on A380s need to be replaced

Qantas' chief executive says that up to 40 Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engines will need to be replaced in the global fleet of Airbus A380 superjumbos following an incident in which an engine broke apart in midair.

Qantas CEO Alan Joyce reportedly told journalists on Thursday that the airline was in discussions with Airbus about its fleet of A380s, which have been grounded since the Nov. 4 incident. Qantas spokesman Simon Rushton confirmed Joyce's comments.

Qantas, Singapore Airlines and Lufthansa all fly A380s powered by Trent 900 engines. Singapore Airlines and Lufthansa briefly grounded some of their superjumbos after the Qantas incident but returned almost all of them to service after conducting safety checks.

Source

 

[Jordan-34092]

You bound to get this happening with new engines for new aircraft. i don't see why they were making such a big deal out of it all, rolls Royce are one of the best known companies that produces aircraft engines in the world they also have one of the best safety records for their products too.

 

[pilot_737]

Why are you bound to get problems with brand new engines?

 

[Aviador]

pilot_ben I'm with you on this.

That is a silly suggestion Concorde Lover. Rolls Royce manufacturers have been in the business of making jet engines for decades. New versions aren't going to be significantly different to earlier models. The engines go through stringent endurance test procedures before they get put into use.

 

[pilot_737]

Exactly Aviador, and as Concorde Lover suggests, Rolls Royce are the best in the business with the best safety record yet apparently its expected that brand new engines should blow up!

 

[Jordan-34092]

i didn't mean it like that. I meant your bound to get problems with newly developed engines but these problems should be resolved during testing, not on aboard an aircraft during take off with 400 people on board.

 

[Aviador]

i didn't mean it like that. I meant your bound to get problems with newly developed engines but these problems should be resolved during testing, not on aboard an aircraft during take off with 400 people on board.

Yes I am sure that was meant to be the case but unfortunately it happened whilst it was airborne.

 

[Jordan-34092]

[textarea]Incident: Qantas A332 at Perth on Sep 23rd 2011, bird strike


A Qantas Airbus A330-200, registration VH-EBP performing flight QF-802 from Perth,WA to Melbourne,VI (Australia) with 273 passengers, was departing Perth's runway 21 when the aircraft flew through a flock of birds in the initial climb ingesting a number of birds into the left hand engine (CF6), that emitted a loud bang and streak of flames as result. The crew levelled off at 4000 feet and returned to Perth's runway 21 for a safe landing about 25 minutes after departure.

A replacement Airbus A330-200 registration VH-EBO reached Melbourne with a delay of 9.5 hours.

Source[/textarea]

 

[Jordan-34092]

Qantas Airways has finalised a contract for 110 Airbus A320 aircraft, including 78 A320neo.



The aircraft will be deployed across the Qantas Group on short-to-medium haul domestic and international operations, said Airbus and Australia's national carrier in a joint statement.

This order confirms a commitment for the A320s that Qantas announced on 16 August 2011.

The Oneworld alliance member has also confirmed that the A320 will be the aircraft used to launch a new premium airline based in Asia. Qantas is deciding between Singapore and Kuala Lumpur for the base of this new subsidiary.

All of the aircraft, including 32 regular A320s, will also be deployed across the Qantas Group's fleet. This includes its low-cost subsidiary Jetstar, Singapore-based Jetstar Asia, and the upcoming Jetstar Japan.

Qantas has not selected an engine for the A320neo.

Source


Slight of another blow to boeing, Qantas choosing the A320neo over the 737max.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Qantas Grounds Fleet

Qantas has taken the unprecedented step of grounding its entire fleet as the latest move in its bitter dispute with trade unions.

Aircraft will complete their current legs and then be grounded.

The Australian government was taken by surprise and has initiated moves to get the two sides together immediately. Not only will passengers be hugely inconvenienced but a prolonged grounding would seriously affect the country's economy and some fear it could lead to the demise of the airline.

What a time to do it too - the Melbourne Cup is on Tuesday and is regarded as important enough to rate a public holiday in Oz with people flying in from all round the country as well as from further afield to watch the Big Race.

Numerous media stories about this - one is at this link.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/b71fb61c-021c ... z1cAyo8RvU

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Court orders Qantas to resume flights

Qantas has called off the dramatic grounding of its entire fleet after a tribunal ordered the Australian airline and trade unions to end a dispute that has stranded thousands of passengers.

Fair Work Australia, an independent arbiter, ordered the cessation of rolling industrial action in a ruling that forces Qantas and three unions to return to the negotiating table. It also ended one of the most extraordinary acts of industrial brinkmanship of recent times, which had seen the world's second oldest airline ground its entire fleet on Saturday in apparent exasperation at union behaviour, catching the Australian government and passengers by surprise.

Full report at http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011 ... sfeed=true

The report is an interesting read as it discusses similar industrial problems currently being encountered by other major airlines around the world including BA.

 

[flypark]

Will Quantas refund passengers who have lost out on their holidays. I couldn't imagine saving up all year with and children all excited to find out my flight is cancelled there is no holiday and I'm £2000+ out of pocket. :shok:

 

[Aviador]

Will Quantas refund passengers who have lost out on their holidays. I couldn't imagine saving up all year with and children all excited to find out my flight is cancelled there is no holiday and I'm £2000+ out of pocket. :shok:

Good question because you wouldn't be covered by the European Passenger Charter as you would if you were flying with a European based airline. All said, I can't imagine the airline leaving passengers stranded high and dry. In most cases like this the airline tend to transfer passengers on the next available flight.

 

[flypark]

From what I saw on the news, the speed in which the flights were cancelled left passengers with no next availble options as there aren't that many airlines that fly from the UK to Australia.

 

[Jordan-34092]

From what I saw on the news, the speed in which the flights were cancelled left passengers with no next availble options as there aren't that many airlines that fly from the UK to Australia.

There 7 flights a day from UK to Australia, 4 with Qantas and 3 with BA. Although you can fly with the likes of Emirates or Ethidad via United Arab Emirates.

 

[Aviador]

According to one news source Qantas said it paid to rebook passengers on other airlines, including compensation for those who had to pay higher last-minute fares to get home.

 

[Jordan-34092]

Qantas A330 upset pinned on rare data-spike effect



Australian investigators have cited a flight-control computer design limitation, and a rare air-data signal spike, as the triggers for the mysterious in-flight upset to a Qantas Airbus A330 three years ago.

Inquiries into the upset involving flight QF72 during high-altitude cruise to Perth, which injured 119 of the 315 occupants, have resulted in improvement of flight-computer algorithms processing angle-of-attack data.

"As a result of this redesign, passengers, crew and operators can be confident that the same type of accident will not reoccur," said the Australian Transport Safety Bureau.

While in cruise at flight level 370, one of the A330's three air data inertial reference units began transmitting incorrect data spikes, including spurious information on angle of attack, which prompted the flight-control computer to command a pitch-down response.

"Although the pitch-down command lasted less than 2s, the resulting forces were sufficient for almost all the unrestrained occupants to be thrown to the aircraft's ceiling," said the ATSB in its final report into the 7 October 2008 incident. There was a second, less-severe, pitch-down nearly 3min later.

While it examined several possibilities for the cause of the failure in the Northrop Grumman air-data unit - even considering a cosmic particle strike - the inquiry could not establish a reason. It said the failure was "probably not triggered" by a software or hardware fault, environmental factors, or electromagnetic interference.

"Despite extensive testing and analysis the exact origins of the failure mode could not be determined," the ATSB stated. The problem "very likely" centred on data packaging and queuing in the central processing unit, resulting in numerous anomalies including certain air data parameters being transmitted with the label of other parameters.

But the ATSB found that the failure mode had been observed only three times in 128 million hours of operation - twice with the same specific unit, the one fitted on the Qantas A330. The investigation concluded that the failure was probably initiated by a "single, rare type of trigger event" combined with a "marginal susceptibility" to such an event within the hardware of the central processing unit.

The A330's flight-control computer normally compares the angle-of-attack values received from all three air-data units, to check for validity and consistency.

If there was a significant deviation in these values, the computer would memorise the most recent valid one for a period of 1.2s.

But the ATSB said that although the flight-control computer algorithm was "very effective", it could not correctly manage a scenario in which the air-data computer generated multiple spikes, 1.2s apart, in its angle-of-attack channel.

This limitation of the algorithm effectively meant a spike occurring after the memorisation period expired was treated as valid data, and the flight-control system responded by suddenly pitching the aircraft nose-down.

Source