28L wrote:
Ref the AA 777 incident yesterday, I understand the problem was probably with the autothrottle rather than the engine. Entirely different to the BA 777 incident.
Hope this stops the thread diverging.....I'm learning a lot about cavitation and bubbles here!
28L, is your source for this information something different than the flightglobal.com article? I ask only because, IMHO the article reads very similarly to those that came out immediately after the BA038 incident with reference specifically to the autothrottle.
Incidentally, American 777s do use the Trent 800.
Far-flung possibility (feel free to shoot it down mercilessly): If I remember correctly, there was a recent FADEC software update on the BA 777 (Dec 2007 if I remember correctly). Now, I know all systems performed "as expected" according to the AAIB including the FADEC. However, it is possible that this update introduced an anomaly that would go undetected in testing, was not logged in system events, and would only occur under specific circumstances.
Does anyone know if the FADEC software on the AA 777s has been recently updated as well? Might be worth looking into.
Whether mechanical or software, I do know that these types of intermittent issues are especially tricky to deal with in that they tend to correct themselves before anyone can take a close enough look to find the problem. Even the most elaborate or event logging across numerous systems cannot capture every detail.
I am SLF with nothing more than a PPL but have been following this thread in great detail and appreciate all the expert input that has come up so far. BA038 is proving to be a very complex incident. It reminds me of TWA800 in that respect. TWA800 taught us a lot when it was finally resolved. Hopefully, BA038 will do the same.