Volga Dnepr Fire?

[EI - E I - O]

Found this, dunno how acurate?

Volga Dnepr has experienced a setback, with a serious fire to one of its AN-124-100s under repair at Aviastar in Ulyanovsk, having already been severely damaged in a landing mishap at Gander last year. The AN124-100 caught fire last Thursday (May 31st) in the paint shop of Aviastar-SP's affiliate, ZAO Aviastar-Spektr. It was being repainted after a crash at Gander Airport in Newfoundland, when a crew error in the brake settings resulted in the aircraft running off the runway and into boggy ground, resulting in damage to the aircraft's landing gear, win and airframe. It took several months to recover the aircraft to Aviastar. The repaired aircraf had recently started flight tests and was being prepared for painting when the solvents being used to clean the wing caught fire. The subsequent blaze lasted 23 minutes and took 16 fire vehicle to bring it under control, leaving one of the aircraft's wings destroyed. Three workers suffered broken limbs as a result of having to jump 6-8 metres to the ground from the wing, while another suffered severe burns.

[Code Blue]

EI,

I can't comment on the accuracy of the fire report, but was interested in the comment about the cause of the Runway overrun in Gander. Do you have a reference for the brake setting issue? I haven't seen TC's report on the accident.

Regards
CB

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[bugman]

TC don't conduct investigations into accidents-the TSB do. Go to their website www.tsb.gc.ca (http://www.tsb.gc.ca) and you can access their reports. I don't believe, however, that they conducted a full investigation into the Gander one.

[Rapid_Climber]

Sadly I was the flt ops officer on that night, it was Dec'99. Airframe was RA82046. From my understanding of the incident it was a conbination of ATC giving wrong info on SNOWTAM, pilot landing a little late. But mainly the brake settings being set according to SNOWTAM info given. Was quite a lot of damage to the airframe ripped about 18ft of the strbd wing and an engine, as well as damaging the undercarriage. Thankfully no-one was hurt or injured. I was also on for a similar incident Dec'98 into a Canadian airforce base with RA82078, same prob with ATC. Once again thankfully no-one was hurt and the airframe required hardly any repairs. I'm sorry to hear about the fire seems that frame is jinxed not to fly again.

[Code Blue]

Bugman:

I stand (or sit actually) corrected - sloppy phraseology on my part. TSB's site doesn't have anything on the Gander overrun.

RC:
My interest was from having to taxi around the damn thing for 14 months :rolleyes: There was a suggestion that it should have been turned into a nightclub and left where it was.

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[antonovman]

<<blaze lasted 23 minutes and took 16 fire vehicle to bring it under control>>
i would be very surprised if they had 16 fire vehicles in the whole city of Ulyanovsk let alone 16 vehicles at the airport, i've never seen one or any other kind of airport vehicle when i've been thru there
maybe the one and only had to fill up 16 times, thats why it took so long to put the fire out :-)

[Rapid_Climber]

It did take along time to repair, even the Russian FAA has standards. The Russian FAA refuesd to allow the aircraft to be bojjed and said it had to be fully servicable before it could overfly Russian FIR. It took so long as parts are not readily available for An124's and they all had to be flown in.

Heard from an insider that no confirmed reports of how big it was and how long the fire burnt, but as stated earlier a number of guys are confirmed to be injured from having to jump from the wing and fuselage.

[Gary Halliday]

RC

Rather than ATC mistake, VD interpretation of JBIs at fault.

GH

[secret agent 86]

Actually, I think you'll find that it was a misunderstanding with ATC passing a CRFI (Curfee)and the crew not knowing what the hell a CRFI was. Can't blame the VD crew though...as most pilots in Canada at the time didn't know what one was either.

[Code Blue]

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" size="2">crew not knowing what the hell a CRFI was. Can't blame the VD crew though...as most pilots in Canada at the time didn't know what one was either</font>

Do you have any evidence to support that assertion? I don't believe it to be true.

I have studiously refrained from speculating on the causes of that overrun, though having been there at the time, I believe my speculation to have more foundation than most. I will wait for the TSB report.

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[secret agent 86]

You'll be waiting a while for the TSB report because I don't believe that they conducted a full investigation. They only investigate accidents that serve the interest of the Canadian public. As for evidence, I have it, but sadly can't reveal it. (I know that sounds like a cop-out...but it's true). My comment on CRFI is accurate as it had just come into use and not all Canadian pilots, indeed most, probably didn't understand it correctly. It is therefore reasonable for the VD pilots to not understand what a CRFI was.

[Rapid_Climber]

I'm sorry but it would seem Secret Agent agrees with me Code Blue. At the end of the day you are correct slightly. The accident would have been a combination of ATC using terms which had only recently published, and maybe not issuing runway condition correctly. The VD pilots (who may I add are probably some of the most experienced pilots in Russian with most being ex-test pilots for Sukhoi and Antonov) not knowing correctly how to interpret the runway condition. And obviously a recently cleared icy runway.

[Code Blue]

It seems we each have our own speculation on the cause(s) of the Overrun. If a full investigation doesn't emerge then we may never really know.

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[Engineer]

If my memory serves me right the AN124 is flown with reference to an angle of attack meter. Where the on board computer set the required angle of attack and the pilot then flys to that requirement.

However did see on a number of occasions the landing profile was not properly configured and so aircraft sailed across the threshold at a slightly high Vth

Maybe coupled with the poor weather the odds were stacked against them that day Who knows

[This message has been edited by Engineer (edited 18 June 2001).]

[dc8ray]

OK, I'm just a stupid American pilot. Just what is a CRFI?

Ray

[Engineer]

DC8ray
Canadian Runway Friction Index (CRFI)

Useful web site
http://www.navcanada.ca/navcanada.asp?gL=EN&Pid=home&Sid=0&mPath=home.asp

edited4the web site address


[This message has been edited by Engineer (edited 21 June 2001).]