Weight of Emirates tail-strike plane queried
By Geoff Easdown
Herald Sun
April 29, 2009 08:01am
AIR accident investigators probing the near-disastrous Emirates tail-strike incident at Melbourne Airport are concerned that wrong load numbers were punched into the jet's flight computer.
The Herald Sun has been told the take-off load could have been up to 100 tonnes more than the weight recorded.
The ATSB will release its report tomorrow on the March 20 incident at Tullamarine, which it has already billed as “significant”. The report, which details everything that happened that night, is said to include graphic pictures taken by airport security cameras. Other photos show damage to the runway as well as burns in surrounding grass caused by the plane's four jet engines.
Two senior Emirates executives have flown to Melbourne from the airline's Dubai headquarters to carry out media briefings. Sources told the
Herald Sun yesterday that the situation may have arisen because too many people were on the flight deck before the aircraft pulled back from the terminal.
Apart from the four pilots usually in Emirates cockpits on long-haul flights, between two and four other people could have been present in the pre-flight check period. ”There is a great deal of conjecture about, that wrong load numbers were punched into the FMC (Flight Management Computer),” International Air Pilots' Association spokesman
Barry Jackson said last night. Pilots are handed a load chart for each flight before takeoff. It includes fuel levels, cargo and passenger loadings.
Emirates Flight EK407, with 225 passengers, was racing down runway 16 at 280km/h when the pilot and first officer realised almost too late they had insufficient power to lift the big jet into the air. Their last-minute action saved the passengers. Emirates refused to confirm if it had demoted its vice-president of airline safety.