The aircraft (OJM) was on descent into BKK (late afternoon with fine weather conditions) when the cabin crew reported a major water leak in the first class galley area (turned out to be caused by blocked drains). Shortly after that the engine driven generators dropped offline accompanied by a huge number of related EICAS messages. Power was available only to the Captains PFD, ND and standby Attitude indicator. At the time that this happened, the leading edge flaps had already been deployed due to the 210 knot limit in the STAR for BKK. The crew started working through the checklists for the more important EICAS messages but after realising that they were not going to get the generators back on line the captain elected to get the aircraft on the ground ASAP before they ran out of battery power. Alt gear/flap extension, no anti-skid, no autobrakes, no thrust reverser were some of the issues that they dealt with in a very short timeframe and then landed safely. On the ground, outflow valves had to be manually opened using remaining DC power to depressurise prior to opening the doors. A flap assymetry occured when they tried to retract the flaps (believed to be due to elec control of leading edge flaps).
The directive that is now in force requires QF B744's to have every drain in the P & J class galleys (4 per galley, I believe) checked for blockages and then water is flushed through while the shields above the Main Electric Centre (MEC) are checked for integrity. There are directions as to how any repairs to the shields are to done and reports of every inspection are to be sent to Boeing's Maintenance Watch.
The main question to be answered is why the shields on OJM did not work - ie were they fitted correctly, cracked, etc and where was the last heavy maintenance check done.
Last edited by Going Boeing; 9th Jan 2008 at 02:33.