Black Cloud

I heard of a Delta A330 near stall incident en-route from Delhi to AMS on the night of 22nd April. Crew feared for their lives and the rumour is there were no associated warnings. Does anyone have further information?

lomapaseo

Isn't it common to for every flight to fly near stall?

It would be of interest only if the aircraft gave warnings and the crew did nothing.

Black Cloud

Stick to being a 'Mechanical Pathologist' and stop posting useless responses. This is a real and serious incident and needs to be investigated and understood given the A330s recent past.

deSitter

Is it real? Details?

edit: The only way Delta gets near Delhi is via code shares with Air France and KLM - one is an A340 and the other an MD-11.

Skittles

Stop posting useless responses?

So far all we've had from you is that something might have happened at some point during some flight that might have something to do with stalling.

misd-agin

Selected four days in a row in May for DEL - AMS.

from delta.com -

Delta Air Lines does not have any flights scheduled that match your request.

MetoPower

Having myself a bit of knowledge about A330/340, these aircraft are fairly well protected from stall, unless in very degraded Flight Control Computers. (and their recent history?? which one?? AF?? Still speculations as far as I am concerned)
Then the crew feared for their lives...... Do they know their aircraft and what they are doing??
And then no such flight DEL-AMS

Not making any sense to me

Hotel Tango

Perhaps it was the BOM (Mumbai) - AMS flight.

MelbPilot85

Theoretically any Airbus FBW aircraft can't stall while in normal law. It's possible in alternate or direct law though not really easy to do unless something is fairly wrong....

Flex33

Just a moment,

While sat in your Airbus during the CRZ phase you find yourself in shear.
It's not always predicted or avoidable.
Rapidly, VLS & VMO indicate the same on the speedtape,
While the trend vector drops just as rapidly.
Alpha Floor will be doing its best, but it will probably require your assistance to resolve the issue!

Tech is great, but over reliance on it will end in tears.

divinehover

"Crew feared for their lives" What crap is this?

zondaracer

Where did you hear about this? Any source on this?

bubbers44

I really don't believe the Delta pilots were in fear of their lives. Where do people come up with this BS? I flew a full career with a major airline and was never in fear of my life. I know flying an Airbus makes you a computer controller but people that I know that fly it trust it and don't fear it. I chose not to fly it because of the computer issue but they seem happy with it. My Boeing just keeps on going no matter what breaks.

Gretchenfrage

... and your assistance will be ignored about as much as it was on QF72 ...

I'm in with bubbers, I don't hate AB but I stopped trusting their jets and left.
Maybe it's pure coincidence, or it is only me, but lately the 330 is involved in too many incidents concerning flight control, at least to my gusto.

EK_Bus Driver

Alpha Floor is inhibited above Mach 0.53.

So it IS possible to get into trouble at high Alt + Turbulence.

HeadingSouth

can we pls first verify what happened and what provoked that rumour rather than starting another number of pages about the disadvantages of computer controlled flight ?

if something happened it sounds serious enough to have it discussed.
but pls discuss IT and not A vs B and not wired controls vs steel cable controls...

bvcu

Just remind me , hasnt it been a little while since we stopped building wide body airliners in the west that werent 'computer controlled' ? After all the possible scenario of pitot icing in the AF loss is not a lot different to the taped up static ports on the 757 in terms of automation . Even go back to 737-200 with EPR fault due probe icing causing a crash , if its not recognised at the time then yr in trouble .

Gretchenfrage

HeadingSouth

I love you guys, really! As soon as any criticism over a AB product arises, you dismiss it right away by branding it AB vs. B polemics. Get over your complex, please.

I didn't name the big B once, however just put down my distrust in the airframe that recently had a lot of problems with flight control. Apparently with landings as well now.
My distrust could be described as the Pinto syndrome. The more Pintos exploded, the less Ford claimed it had something to do with that specific model. In the end they had to pay millions in lawsuits and take the car out of production for reengineering.
To me no one, I will rephrase that, no one from AB has been heard adressing the A330 problems in a sincere and frank way. It is simlpy unacceptable that an aircraft does not respond to pilots inputs once the AP is disconnected, be it AB or B. Take this as my distrust in an aircraft that reportedly has had some problems with that, and we can discuss it further. But never again just discard a honest criticism with the AB vs. B bulls#!t as yours, please.

HeadingSouth

Gretchenfrage,

don't worry there's no complex about A vs B. I just read some posts ahead of mine that Boeings are always going, and that fly-by-wire Airbuses can be stalled.

And before this thread drifts into one of the common drifters I would just prefer to get the facts about the incident mentioned before filling the internet with more unnecessary stuff.

I can take a lot of criticism about A and B products. And E as well before anyone opens their mouth.

llagonne66

As it's a US registered A/C, I guess the usual BEA / Airbus / Air France conspiracy won't be able to hide the truth from the unsuspecting public !
So let's wait for the report of the incident (if it's as serious as mentioned at the start this thread) on the NTSB website before elaborating on hearsay and refight our usual A vs B contest.