The Men Who would Pollute the Jetstar Culture
These brave experienced professional pilots are the men Qantas management refers to as bus drivers.The very men who would pollute the JetStar culture.
Its the sort of pollution most airlines can only dream about.Not only did they land a stricken aircraft but saved the lives of 400 people and what remains of the tarnished Qantas reputaion.
Gentlemen I bow to you and say job well done.
THE crew of a crippled Qantas airliner averted disaster last month.
As the crew of Flight QF32 began to reconfigure the damaged A380 aircraft for landing in Singapore, they were bringing in the superjumbo without many of the systems they took for granted and with only one engine functioning normally.
Only theNo 3 engine had reverse thrust, no leading edge slats were available, there was limited aileron and spoiler control and anti-skid braking was restricted, an Australian Transport Safety Bureau report said yesterday.
The nose wheel steering was limited and the pilots knew the nose was likely to pitch up on landing. A message from the airliner's central monitoring system indicated they could not apply maximum braking until the nose wheel was on the runway.
The pilots had already conducted tests to reassure themselves they could control the aircraft. But the captain knew he had to get the speed exactly right to avoid an aerodynamic stall that would rob the plane of lift or see it career off the end of the runway.
Calculations were that they would have just 100m of runway left when the A380 came to a halt and computer messages indicated two more of the four engines had been affected by the disintegration of the No 2 engine.
This left the captain using the No 1 and 4 engines to provide symmetric thrust while controlling the aircraft's speed using the unaffected No 3 engine.
The five crew -- there were two extra captains on board -- had already spent almost an hour dealing with a flurry of error messages that began as shrapnel from the No 2 engine tore through the wing, cutting wiring, hydraulic and fuel systems.
They had more than 72,000 hours flying time between them and they worked through the potential contingencies, including worries the aircraft was leaking fuel. They had been unable to activate the fire extinguishers on the damaged engine and had difficulties balancing out the fuel.
As the aircraft descended, the autopilot disconnected and, after an attempt to reconnect, the pilot opted to fly the plane manually. The cabin crew was told to prepare for runway overrun and evacuation as the aircraft touched down. The captain applied maximum braking and reverse thrust in the No 3 engine. The deceleration initially appeared slow but it eventually stopped 150m short of the runway end.
The crew was hailed yesterday for their handling of the crisis. "The aircraft would not have arrived safely in Singapore without the effective action of the flight crew," ATSB chief commissioner Martin Dolan said.
The report came as Qantas said inspections overnight had not found any issues with oil pipes on its two operating A380s and they had resumed service.
The ATSB issued a safety alert calling for inspections after investigators determined an oil leak that led to a damaging fire inside the engine probably stemmed from fatigue cracking in the thin side of an unevenly bored oil tube.
The ATSB recommended inspections of engines within two flights with a borescope to see whether the tube was deformed. Mr Dolan said the problem would not be picked up in normal maintenance and investigators had not found any maintenance-related issues with the engine.
Court documents yesterday revealed Qantas would accuse Rolls-Royce of misleading and deceptive conduct relating to the performance of its engines if it proceeded with legal action. The documents said under current circumstances, an A380 on the Los Angeles route would be typically limited to 80 passengers, and not the 450 plus freight it carried prior to the incident.