Gulf Air 151
 

Apparently GF 151 had a runway change in BKK from 21R to 21L on April 6th and "Raouffed" the take off run. Apparently it took out a tree at the end of the runway and the loud bump was reported to cabin crew by pax. However the A340 continued to BAH with vibrations coming from No 2 engine (which has ingested part of the tree, the rest being stuffed into the u/c bay on retraction.

On gear extension into BAH a hydraulic system was lost and to cap it all a precautionary evacuation was carried out.

A big hush up?

Sources in Bahrain confirm. Illegal importation of plant material had taken place and was located in the u/c. Cover-up.........probably. Surprising..........NO. Continuing on for eight hours.........risky. The MIRACLE of Gulf Air continues.

So, in the interest of fair play, after having lambasted BA for their 3 engine run across the atlantic, we should now give GF hell about this one. I'll kick off:

Bloody unprofessional show! Was this a "saving face" scenario agian?

My information doesn't show the takeoff distances available, but there's only 200 meters difference in total length between 21R and 21L. Is that enough to put them in a position of hitting a tree with a normal four engine takeoff? Seems there's more at play here than a simple runway change, IMHO.

A couple of decades in the region have left me jaded to the extent that I would suggest that the tree was placed in such a position to discredit Gulf Air and that Capt. Sheikh Thingmy Wahtsit was in no way to blame for the incident.

During my long tenure there I was repeatedly reassured by my subordinate local crew members that it was not in their nature to make mistakes.

That settles that then...........NEXT!

Is that enough to put them in a position of hitting a tree with a normal four engine takeoff?

Sticky BKK weather, 4 engines provided by a hair dressing salon, I wouldn't take any chances in an A340....

Hi, the possible gotcha when rushed is crossing from 21R to 21L and not turning left on the taxiway to enable a full length departure. Have been offered it in the past and to enable a departure at out weight we needed to use full length 21L. It does not look like a huge difference but it critical to our operation. Fairly heavy 773 and using the laptop for take off calculations which uses maximum runway length. Rgds.

Investigation under way
 

Insider sources have revealed that an investigation is under way by GulpAir in BKK to uncover who authorized the sudden placement of the trees at the end of the runway without informing Gulp Air technical /performance dept.

It is apparent that GulpAir is not adept to changes or up to date with current customs regulations concerning the import of agricultural products into the Kingdom of Bahrain.

Perhaps GulpAir should include this material in their training program and loft sessions.

No hushup whatsoever..if u bother to read ur GF webmail

Here’s a tale about an imaginary airline, which for want of a better name, we’ll call Berrybigbay Airlines. In our totally imaginary tale, among its many exotic ports of call, we’ll have our imaginary airline flying to a remote island destination, Barebonesabad, which has a single runway with a parallel taxiway that is wide enough for light turboprops but nothing bigger. The only taxiway that will take a widebody (which is want we’ll have our imaginary Berrybigbay Airlines fly) joins the runway at 90 degrees about half way along its length and leads into the apron.

Departing Barebonesabad one day, unexplainably, (and heedless of the company notice not to do so), one of the Berrybigbay Airlines captains taxied his widebody up the too narrow parallel taxiway. This left his outer wheels well into the (very soft) grass. Unfortunately, the taxiway lights were at exactly the same spacing as the outer wheels of the widebody. Even more unfortunate was the fact that the taxiway lights were placed on steel posts set in concrete. The outer tyres on both bogeys on both sides were completely destroyed by a succession of steel posts before they got anywhere near the runway.

Then came the time to turn onto the runway...

Holding the nosewheel studiously on the taxiway centreline, Captain Thingamy Wahtsit suddenly found he needed a bit more power as the mains on the inside of the turn sank deeply into the soft grass. (There was an ‘up’ side to this - the inner taxi lights on the turn remained unscathed.) So much power did he need in fact, that, incredible as this may seem, he blew a hangar away, in which, unfortunately, were three light aircraft.

He then he proceeded to take off, which, a mute testament to the engineering skills of the people who built this particular widebody, he managed to do successfully, despite getting a wheel well fire warning after takeoff, which went away after a few minutes, so he set out as planned for his destination.

Some time after departure, Barebonesabad ATC informed Captain Thingamy Wahtsit that ‘there was a bit of rubber on the runway’. (At this early stage, they were yet to discover their marked reduction in taxiway lighting or the absence of one of their very few hangars.) We can’t be sure of the thought process in the imaginary cockpit, but believe it might have gone something along these lines: ‘Ahh, we had a wheel well fire warning after takeoff. Maybe we blew a tyre on takeoff.’

So Captain Thingmy Wahtsit decides to divert straight to Berrybigbay Airlines’ main maintenance base – but he doesn’t tell anybody on board. The first thing the passengers and cabin crew know that anything is unusual is when he does a 100’ flyby past the tower at Mainaintenancebase – at night – and the pax see that the building going past the windows very close doesn’t look like their destination at all.

After a quick, if perhaps not too reassuring PA to tell his hapless pax that is said to have included the phrase that ‘if you have a God, this might be a good time to pray to Him’, Captain Thingamy Wahtsit lands (successfully) and signs the aircraft off with nothing entered in the tech log and departs for the hotel.

I never did hear what happened to the hangar in Barebonesabad that is no more, but I’m sure there are a few people out there like [b]chrislamb[/b and Abbeville who could come up with a few informed opinions as to what happened to the (totally imaginary) Captain Thingamy Wahtsit and his FO.

Old story, old news...we could jam Dannys website with stories abouts lotsa airlines and their misadventures...what to do?:(

Skinny dog,

The tale continous. The airline pays the airport for the lost hangar and the captain continous flying as if nothing had happend. He still tells the passengers "welcome to my country" whereever he lands.

:cool:
Nattracks

Some similarities with an incident over 40 years ago,- circa 1961 when a SAA B 707 collected an olive tree on departure from Athens. Despite knowing they had hit something ,the flight was continued to Nairobi where said tree was conspicuously embedded in the lower rear fuselage just behind the pressure bulkhead. As far as I can remember that was the end of some of the flight decks career with the company.

Getting off whilst Queering the Pitch
 

As Safety Guy said There may be 200m difference between runway 21R (at 12,139 ft) and 21L (at 11,461 ft) but surely either would be more than long enough in the hottest temperatures to get off....even with 10 kts of tail.

There are three types of Spatial Disorientation

Type I (Unrecognized): The pilot is oblivious to his or her disorientation, and controls the aircraft completely in accord with and in response to a false orientational percept.

Type II (Recognized): The pilots may experience a conflict between what they feel the aircraft is doing and what the flight instruments show that it is doing.

Type III (Incapacitating): The pilot experiences an overwhelming -- i.e., incapacitating – physiologic response to physical or emotional stimuli associated with the disorientation event.


Sounds more like the ultimate and most lethal somatogravic illusion - the pitch-up illusion

You go up - then you come down. Surviving to then get your comeuppance is a rare exception to the norm.

gulf air t/o and landing
 

guys you seem to miss the big picture the captain took off from a taxiway cleaned the obstruction to the runway ferried it to next port of call landed sucessfully disposed the garbage whey he what more do you need blood thank god he avoided jfk just imagine flying to jfk with all that load with a name like gulf strewth he might just be fried
:ok:

Notwithstanding the above "explanation", try to name an airline out there that hasn't had some sort of T/O incident where a heavy jet almost or did contact an obstruction but kept flying. (Returns to dep airport count) Seriously...There aren't that many who haven't. So let's see what the numbers look like. My point? You guys are smart, figure it out...
Fire away!
:rolleyes:

57,
I appreciate that English may not be your primary language but this is a RUMOURS and NEWS website.

Something that appears on the GF site does not reach many people which in case you missed was the point of the Email. Not only the incident but the cover up ;)

Anyway most people seemed to find it of interest ( except yourself of course:confused: )

Positively no cover up. Initial investigation complete and report will be issued soon. The reason the crew elected to continue was no abnormal indications on the ecam. They believed it was a burst tyre on T/O. There was no eng vib and no evac in bahrain as some of the armchair experts (lol) here have said. The crew waiting on their fate, so cut them some slack til we have all the facts. Damage was to one brake unit and two blades in one eng. The aircraft landed safely after a precautionary landing with all engines running and in tact fuel reserves. Now quit the kangaroo court.

Why? Does it matter where the crew was from????:mad: