Dassault Falcon 7X grounded?
 

I have just heard that the Falcon 7X bizjet has been grounded due to a pitch trim runaway somewhere in Malaysia. Anyone have any more information?

The AD is here:

EASA Airworthiness Directives Publishing Tool

AD 2011-0102-E

Falcon 7X Suspension of Flight Ops
 

Not my area of expertise but I thought worthy of mentioning in case anyone misses it.

http://www.caa.co.uk/docs/33/easa_ad_2011_0102_E.pdf

If I read it correctly from 27 May 2011 on a temporary basis all Falcon X aeroplanes are grounded.

just saw it too. Um, quite unheard of?

http://www.bazl.admin.ch/fachleute/l...bNoKSn6A--.pdf

wow ! That's BAD...

Ouch! That's going to hurt a lot of operators... not exactly what the biz jet op market needs at the moment... Nor Dassault. :ouch:
Well done the crew getting it down.

Thanks a lot!!

Any idea when this happened and which ac was involved?

Some unconfirmed reports have the incident taking place in Malaysia. No mention of aircrafts nationality.

If the AD wording is accurate, then I am impressed by the forthrightness of Dassault management in taking the somewhat courageous step of recommending that their flagship product be grounded; I wonder how many other managements in our industry, whether OEM, operator or anything else, would be as willing to take the flak to do the right thing?

This is in some ways reminiscent of the Stab Actuator problems of the Learjet 45 resulting in a similar AD, circa 2003.

IIRC, the actuator was made by a contractor who had made unauthorised modifications.

Hopefully there will be a quick resolution.

Elevator trim runaway
 

Although my comment is not directly related to this incident;

On the advice of people older and wiser than myself (including flight engineers), on all the aircraft I have flown or managed I put a collar on the elevator trim circuit breaker so it could be located and pulled quickly if required. This act is triggered by the number of aircraft trim runaways that have historically occurred and the number of business jets where this has caused the loss of the airframe.

Whilst the occurrences are not common they do happen.

Well done to the crew for recovering from what can be a difficult problem to handle.

MM

...You're gonna have a hard time putting a collar on that CB in the 7x...

Yes, it was in Malaysia. Aircraft involved HB-XXX.

Mad (Flt) Scientist....that's what I love about Dassault they are are really good company and stand head and shoulders above the other OEMs :D

...having said that I'm surprised that this has happened...I would have thought the system in question was broadly the same kit as would be found on any of the other big falcons so it would be a surprise if this was a duff bit of design...

Apparently it was going into KL as a previous poster indicated...

FF

It was going into SZB at 0408 local time and understood emergency was declared. Probably it's not a unique incident to this particular 7x thus Dassault reacted accordingly.Also, the French Air Force has one that flies the President!

Well, they should be applauded for prompt and correct action. Brilliant to see a manufacturer taking an positive safety-first attitude.

The Russians also have at least one (Presidential).:ouch:

Anybody have any idea how to get some data on fleet grounding periods (perhaps an average) for similar AD's?

You guys are killing me!

First, Dassault has the WORST customer service and product support of any manufacturer. This is confirmed every single year by the AIN survey. If you don't believe me, Google "AIN 2010 product support survey"

Second, you don't really believe that the EASA gave them any choice in the grounding do you? The aircraft was uncontrolable in flight, think about it!

Third, I would bet that since they have the FDR, there is a lot of information that they are not releasing.

... But you can think whatever you want.

FR