ZQA297/30
9th Nov 2002, 13:43
After trolling through the "Guvnor resurfaces" thread, I came across a number of links, and being nosey I had a poke through them.
There was one that discussed the SDO B757 accident, and it resonated with an experience my airline had in the last couple of months.
We had several ocurrences of partial pitot blockage by insects, to the point of an aborted T/O in MIA.
The cause was quite illuminating
We have two flights into MIA at almost the same time time every day.They turnaround in about 90 minutes.Apparently a family of insects had decided that this type of aircraft(B738) pitots made good homes.
Recently, every day at about mid-day when the aircraft blocked(usually the same gates),there was a flurry of insect activity trying to rebuild the "missing" nests.
We now require pitot covers during the 90 minute turnaround!
There was one that discussed the SDO B757 accident, and it resonated with an experience my airline had in the last couple of months.
We had several ocurrences of partial pitot blockage by insects, to the point of an aborted T/O in MIA.
The cause was quite illuminating
We have two flights into MIA at almost the same time time every day.They turnaround in about 90 minutes.Apparently a family of insects had decided that this type of aircraft(B738) pitots made good homes.
Recently, every day at about mid-day when the aircraft blocked(usually the same gates),there was a flurry of insect activity trying to rebuild the "missing" nests.
We now require pitot covers during the 90 minute turnaround!