Flying on Empty
Flying on Empty
Did anyone see that documentary lats night on the Air Transat A340 incident where the thing ran out of fuel and had to glide to the Lajers. Two things struck me about the programme:
1) The PPRuNE thread a while back describing the incident seemed completely at odds with this report.
2) As horrible as it sounds, I think the programme completely failed to identify the key critical cause of the emergency. The fact that the crew decided upon a course of action without actually having the faintest idea what the problem was. It seems to me that "Do nothing" should be a considered course of action; especially when you are completely confused by the situation - blaming the computer is inexcusible! With my armchair ATP hat on, why didn't they shutdown engine 2 when the low oil temp and high pressure readings first appeared.
It is easy to critisise in hind sight but I think problem solving is often a philosophy as well as a skill.
Also, did they, as the documentary implied but not saying otherwise, forget to that the cross feed was on after engine 2 failed?
Any other thoughts?