Protectionist Decision Blames Mechanic. How Could Air France be at Fault?
It is a shame that Air France is weaseling out from responsibility for this, as they allowed this particular overweight, out of trim, un-serviceable aircraft in the air at all. Regardless of any debris left by Continental, the French owned, French designed aircraft crashed at a French airport while operated (by the French crew) outside of proper parameters, taking off downwind, a 10 inch spacer missing from the main undercarriage; and some reports say it was afire before it ever touched a small piece of metal. Shame on Air France for passing the franc. If a Frenchman had accidentally dropped a banana peel on the runway, would he have been criminally responsible?
In the Concord case, how is it that indirectly, a mechanic in Houston is criminally directly responsible?
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During a training exercise, a Yemeni military fighter jet crashed in Sana’a, Yemen, killing the pilot—although one report says the pilot ejected. Witnesses hearing a loud explosion on impact, and report black smoke. The pilot was named as Mohamed Shaker. In addition to the pilot, there were 12 fatalities and 18 injuries.
The pilot was returning to base after a training mission and requested authorization to land when the aircraft lost altitude and crashed.
The plane was a Russian SU-22 that struck three buildings in al-Qadissiya near Change Square. It struck a building on Rabat Avenue, then hit another and ended up on a third building. Several cars were on fire. Five bodies that were recovered were burned beyond recognition.
All of the victims were civilians and included three women and two children. Several ambulances responded. Some reports said they took a long time to arrive.
On October 5th 2013, a de Havilland Dash Candada DHC-8 with six aboard left the city of Balboa, Panama, at 10:45 pm; it was over Acandi, Choco Province Colombia when it crashed on a drug interdiction mission.
Five Americans and one Panamanian were aboard. The crash occurred in an area where the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia guerrillas and drug-trafficking gangs are in conflict, in a sector of Acandi Township, on the border between Colombia and Panama in a remote, jungle region of northern Colombia. Three American contractors and a Panamanian National Guardsman, Lt. Lloyd Nunez, were killed. Two surviving Americans were severely injured. The surveillance is part of the Salas Becker agreement between Panama and the US, which shares Panamanian drug patrol surveillance.
Reports say that the vehicle lost radio contact with the U.S.-sponsored multinational task force in Key West that runs the operation. The plane was equipped with surveillance instrumentation.
Witnesses heard a loud explosion. Two Americans survived the crash with injuries including multiple bone fractures and burns.
The two wounded were transferred to Carepa in Antioquia and will be moved to the Military Hospital of Bogota at St Vincent hospital de Paul or the Hospital of Pablo Tobon Uribe.
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Rolls said in a statement that the failure was confined to a specific component in the turbine area of the engine. This caused an oil fire. The British company added that it would replace the faulty part. Safety continues to be Rolls-Royce’s highest priority. See their statement
Qantas is grounding its Airbus A380 superjumbos until further notice, and Singapore Airlines is grounding 3 of its A380s. EASA is calling for inspections. See the directive.
What Happened
The cause of the Rolls Royce engine failure has been pinned down to a faulty bearing box, the underlying cause of the oil leak. The bearings allow the drive shaft to move. The leaking bearing box dripped oil into the QANTAS A380 whose engine exploded (uncontained) into the wing, and dropping its turbine onto a house in Batam. The wing damage included electrical cables and hydraulic lines inside the wing, so that pilots were dealing with hydraulic damage (inability to close the landing gear doors), and electrical damage (trouble shutting down the engine beside the damaged one.)
The Qantas meltdown is one of at least five documented A380 engine malfunctions.
Qantas A388 near Singapore on Nov 4th 2010
Lufthansa A388 near Frankfurt on Aug 6th 2010, engine shut down in flight
Emirates A388 near Zurich on Jul 13th 2010, engine shut down in flight
Singapore A388 near Krakow on Sep 27th 2009, engine shut down in flight
Singapore A388 near London on May 25th 2009, engine failure
Newer Trent 900 engines have a different bearing box. Although the new box promises to eliminate the problem, newer models also have system software to shut down the engine before the leak causes a meltdown similar to the QANTAS A380 event over Singapore.
George’s Point of View
Although one might say that regulators did not adequately check the engine before approving it for commercial use, I think of Boeing’s response to its recent 787 test flight, and I point out that no one made Boeing step back and pull the 787 back on to the drawing board for more tests and adjustments. Boeing did that, because such remediation is what testing is all about. It is part and parcel of the paradigm of safety in design. It is up to each manufacturer that every item off of their assembly lines be as well designed and as safe as humanly possible. This includes fixing design flaws as soon as they are known. So I wonder, if newer Trent 900 engines have an improved bearing box, this of course begs the question why the older ones were not replaced.
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Airbus A320-200 Lufthansa nearly crashes during a crosswind approach on the runway 23 at the Hamburg International Airport (EDDH) on 1st march 2008 in Germany.
Left wing touched the runway during extreme turbulance. Left wing destroyed. Plane lands safely.
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Air France 447 went down over the Atlantic in 2009.
The fly-by-wire A330 incorporates technology that prevents the airplane from entering a stall, but during a complete loss of airspeed information, however, the system reverted to manual control.
The final report said said the pilots were “completely surprised” by technical problems experienced at high altitude and engaged in increasingly de-structured actions until suffering “the total loss of cognitive control of the situation.”
CEO of the Flight Safety Foundation has been recorded said pilots generally manually manipulating the controls for only three minutes:one minute and 30 seconds each for take-off and landing.
“We are moving towards automated operations where the pilot isn’t even permitted to fly. That means the first time in your career you will ever feel what an aircraft feels like at 35,000 feet is when it’s handed to you broken.”
What: Asiana Airlines Boeing 777 en route from Seattle Sea-Tac to Seoul, South Korea Where: Seattle-Tacoma International Airport When: on Wednesday, Who: 179 passengers Why: There were reports that flames shot out of one of the jet’s engines and television video of smoke as the plane circled before landing.
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