Anyone got a Towbar??
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Anyone got a Towbar??
I am surprised that the following story from last Tuesday 8th February has not yet been seen in Prune or in the dreaded press.
Diversion due to engine problems!!!!!!!!!!!
Virgin Airlines Airbus 340-600 on route to London Heathrow, diverted to AMS due to Fuel Management Problems.
VIR201 04:51 05:29 A HKG PL G09 G09 G-VATL 346
Nothing known about departure. Passengers are in the clean area awaiting news. By the way, first aircraft type visit???
UPDATE Virgin Airlines:
Still at gate G09 at this moment (09:55 a.m.). Passengers(311) are stuck in waiting area G09 and are not allowed to go out. Drinks and food is served. Also people are smoking inside (and that's not allowed !!!). Aircraft looked very nice and very long, with some additional titles: 'Miss Kitty', 'Air Born October 2003' and 'Backing the Bid'. No news about repairs, but the nicest thing is: a rescue ship is coming in from LGW within an hour, so second Virgin today!!!!!
Arrival: VS811P 11:30 11:30 LGW PP G73 G-VXLG 744
Departure: VS201 12:30 12:30 LGW PC D06 G73 G-VXLG 744
EDIT: also problems with the push back bar for the A340-600, no good one available, that's why the A340 couldn't leave stand G09. We've got A340 Cathay Pacific here, isn't that the same one?
The extra Virgin B747 will arr on G73, G-buffer and the pax will transfer by bus from gate D06(busgate).
The 747 is also bringing a towbar so the Sick Bird can be moved to the G-buffer; problem is that the nosewheel of a A340-600 is wider than the normal 340's and no towbar is available at Schiphol. Note: normal 340's at SPL are -200/300 from Cathay, EgyptAir & until last November Kuwait.
Seems logical as the A340-600 is heavier and taller then the -200 & -300.
Here is a small story about the problem:-
The aircraft was on its way from HKG to LHR when Number 1 engine failed and could not be restarted; nothing to bad but crew then noticed that main tank was empty and they could not pump fuel into it from the other tanks. Then number 4 started to splutter so Captain decided to put it on the ground as soon as possible.
The Virgin 340-600 finally pushed at 2239 and took off from 24 at 2252
Acknowledgements for above to Scramble Message Board.
Diversion due to engine problems!!!!!!!!!!!
Virgin Airlines Airbus 340-600 on route to London Heathrow, diverted to AMS due to Fuel Management Problems.
VIR201 04:51 05:29 A HKG PL G09 G09 G-VATL 346
Nothing known about departure. Passengers are in the clean area awaiting news. By the way, first aircraft type visit???
UPDATE Virgin Airlines:
Still at gate G09 at this moment (09:55 a.m.). Passengers(311) are stuck in waiting area G09 and are not allowed to go out. Drinks and food is served. Also people are smoking inside (and that's not allowed !!!). Aircraft looked very nice and very long, with some additional titles: 'Miss Kitty', 'Air Born October 2003' and 'Backing the Bid'. No news about repairs, but the nicest thing is: a rescue ship is coming in from LGW within an hour, so second Virgin today!!!!!
Arrival: VS811P 11:30 11:30 LGW PP G73 G-VXLG 744
Departure: VS201 12:30 12:30 LGW PC D06 G73 G-VXLG 744
EDIT: also problems with the push back bar for the A340-600, no good one available, that's why the A340 couldn't leave stand G09. We've got A340 Cathay Pacific here, isn't that the same one?
The extra Virgin B747 will arr on G73, G-buffer and the pax will transfer by bus from gate D06(busgate).
The 747 is also bringing a towbar so the Sick Bird can be moved to the G-buffer; problem is that the nosewheel of a A340-600 is wider than the normal 340's and no towbar is available at Schiphol. Note: normal 340's at SPL are -200/300 from Cathay, EgyptAir & until last November Kuwait.
Seems logical as the A340-600 is heavier and taller then the -200 & -300.
Here is a small story about the problem:-
The aircraft was on its way from HKG to LHR when Number 1 engine failed and could not be restarted; nothing to bad but crew then noticed that main tank was empty and they could not pump fuel into it from the other tanks. Then number 4 started to splutter so Captain decided to put it on the ground as soon as possible.
The Virgin 340-600 finally pushed at 2239 and took off from 24 at 2252
Acknowledgements for above to Scramble Message Board.
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Just for the record:
The towing fitting on an A340-500/600 is a larger diameter than A340-200/300 or A330-200/300. The NLG tyres are the same size albeit a higher ply rating.
The reason for the incompatibility is to prevent an A345/6 towbar from being used on the A330/A340-200/300 aircraft. The axial and radial shear pins on the A345/6 are stronger to account for the heavier weights. If an A345/6 towbar was used on an A330/A340-200/300 the shear pins would not shear at a low enough load to prevent damage to the NLG.
I think the reason for the diversion will raise a few eyebrows when Airbus issue the OIT/FOT.
The towing fitting on an A340-500/600 is a larger diameter than A340-200/300 or A330-200/300. The NLG tyres are the same size albeit a higher ply rating.
The reason for the incompatibility is to prevent an A345/6 towbar from being used on the A330/A340-200/300 aircraft. The axial and radial shear pins on the A345/6 are stronger to account for the heavier weights. If an A345/6 towbar was used on an A330/A340-200/300 the shear pins would not shear at a low enough load to prevent damage to the NLG.
I think the reason for the diversion will raise a few eyebrows when Airbus issue the OIT/FOT.
Lack of a suitable towbar at a diversion airport wouldn't be restricted to A340-600's. If you diverted a 747-400 into an airport that didn't normally handle them then a similar problem could occur.
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We had similar tow bar problem on a diversion in South America once upon a time. Think it was in Chile. DC10 stuck at the gate.
What to do....
Airport authority called the nearest army barracks and out come 100 soldiers to the airport. Rigged ropes around the wing gears and hauled away. Worked fine. The only manual push back I've heard of.
What to do....
Airport authority called the nearest army barracks and out come 100 soldiers to the airport. Rigged ropes around the wing gears and hauled away. Worked fine. The only manual push back I've heard of.
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Had an LH A343 divert into MAN back in '95 and there was no towbar available for it as back then it was still a fairly new type that didn't operate into MAN, so the a/c had to be parked across 2 remote stands so it could self manouvre out again.
I would have though that the Airport's Ops department would know what equipment was avaliable from the various handling agents to avoid situations like the VS situation occuring.
Also AMS has TBL tugs, so I'm sure that one of those could have been used - we use them at LHR on the A346 just about everyday.
I would have though that the Airport's Ops department would know what equipment was avaliable from the various handling agents to avoid situations like the VS situation occuring.
Also AMS has TBL tugs, so I'm sure that one of those could have been used - we use them at LHR on the A346 just about everyday.
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No towbar on station. Noooooo problem.
Happened a while back at an airport not too far from me, a DC8 of all things got diverted in due to inclement WX at it's original tech stop. It got parked a long way from anything else even remotely respectable, and then , once the WX had improved enough to allow it to continue, all was prepared to push it back and allow it to continue on it's smokey way. Weeeellllllll. Almost all. No bar on station. Lots of long complicated transatlantic mobile phone calls, frantic searches of the long grass of the airport in case one was hiding somewhere, but no, no bar.
Eventual solution. Wrap a number of cargo straps around one of the main gear legs, attach a suitable power push back tug behind the wing, take up the slack, and puuuulllllllll.
Broke just about every health and safety rule in the book, and a few more, as well as a whole clipboard full of airport byelaws but shure they got it back far enough that it could then start and self position off the stand by crossing a couple more, and away it eventually smoked into the distance.
Oh the joys of (one upon a time) being a rampie!!!
Happened a while back at an airport not too far from me, a DC8 of all things got diverted in due to inclement WX at it's original tech stop. It got parked a long way from anything else even remotely respectable, and then , once the WX had improved enough to allow it to continue, all was prepared to push it back and allow it to continue on it's smokey way. Weeeellllllll. Almost all. No bar on station. Lots of long complicated transatlantic mobile phone calls, frantic searches of the long grass of the airport in case one was hiding somewhere, but no, no bar.
Eventual solution. Wrap a number of cargo straps around one of the main gear legs, attach a suitable power push back tug behind the wing, take up the slack, and puuuulllllllll.
Broke just about every health and safety rule in the book, and a few more, as well as a whole clipboard full of airport byelaws but shure they got it back far enough that it could then start and self position off the stand by crossing a couple more, and away it eventually smoked into the distance.
Oh the joys of (one upon a time) being a rampie!!!
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These VS -600's are very special jets indeed. Needed to borrow an extra main wheel for a double wheel change on a SAA -600 - only one carried in spares tin. Seems that VS wheels are a different hub and different rubber. Eventually ended up with a night stop.
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towbar
quote
Also AMS has TBL tugs, so I'm sure that one of those could have been used - we use them at LHR on the A346 just about everyday. unquote
Well we used our TBL tug to tow the a/c 10 meter further onto the gate however it was not allowed acoording the manufactor the 346 is simply to heavy...even KLM called the factory as they have even heavier TBL's but they would not garuantee that it would work...so the rescue B744 picking up the pax had to bring in a towbar
Also AMS has TBL tugs, so I'm sure that one of those could have been used - we use them at LHR on the A346 just about everyday. unquote
Well we used our TBL tug to tow the a/c 10 meter further onto the gate however it was not allowed acoording the manufactor the 346 is simply to heavy...even KLM called the factory as they have even heavier TBL's but they would not garuantee that it would work...so the rescue B744 picking up the pax had to bring in a towbar
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Curious
Not sure what the real reason is/was for the tech stop in AMS. The story started by saying that the Virgin aircraft was having engine problems. To me that would require an extensive hangar visit before you would attempt to get it back to base. And it would make sense for Virgin to bring in another aircraft to get the people moving.
As for the toweless trucks go. The ones KLM uses for widebodies look strong enough to move an office building. They move the 747's around like they were toys, and I know this from extensive personal experience.
And as far as I know the 747 is still the heaviest baby on the block. So I could not think of one possible reason why they could not be used for the A340-600. If you were to divert to any airport in Europe I could not think of a better equiped place to do so than Schiphol. It can accomodate any sized aircraft, and the maintenance facilities there are top rate. A one stop shop.
As for the toweless trucks go. The ones KLM uses for widebodies look strong enough to move an office building. They move the 747's around like they were toys, and I know this from extensive personal experience.
And as far as I know the 747 is still the heaviest baby on the block. So I could not think of one possible reason why they could not be used for the A340-600. If you were to divert to any airport in Europe I could not think of a better equiped place to do so than Schiphol. It can accomodate any sized aircraft, and the maintenance facilities there are top rate. A one stop shop.
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I think we are missing the point, OEI due to ENG 1 fuel starvation with ENG 4 starting to cough, 28T FOB, no associated fuel system ECAM warning.
I can't wait to hear the explanations for that... How well would an A346 fly on two engines and no green HYD system (LDG freefall - no retraction possible for go-around etc)?
I can't wait to hear the explanations for that... How well would an A346 fly on two engines and no green HYD system (LDG freefall - no retraction possible for go-around etc)?