PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - A340 of Iberia skids off runway in Quito
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Old 12th Nov 2007, 14:29
  #50 (permalink)  
Rainboe
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Join Date: Jan 2005
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Let's just wait and see! Without making any statements that go over the top. I have seen aeroplanes in an apparently worse condition get flying again. The old ANC repair of a 747 was very impressive. Blown off a raised icy taxiway and weathercocking into the teeth of the gale, it slid backwards down a 70 foot high slope, losing gear and engines (running) on the way down, and I think breaking it's back when it hit the horizontal. The story of the recovery is interesting, they had to build a road through Alaskan bush to get to it. Don't know how they got it back up, but it flew again. Yet contrast that with a simple repair to a pressure hull that failed and caused the JAL accident. The carbon fibre panels that came off this are nothing. The fuselage seems undamaged. Wing replacement, 2 new engines, new gear, a few ribs replaced and it may well be the insurance company that demands, whether it is worth it or not, that a repair takes place. It's still a damn good aeroplane, if not matching the 777 in seat mile costs.
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