Saa A340 Emergency At Lhr Today
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Saa A340 Emergency At Lhr Today
Anyone know what happened this morning at LHR? I noted an SAA A340 landing and then being follwed in by fire trucks around one hour later. Meantime it looked as though all ops were on one runway only!
The SAA A340 arrived with a declared hydraulic problem and landed on 27L, where it stopped, as expected. Operations continued on 27R until a tug arrived to tow the A340 away.
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Everyone is close but not quite there as usual. SA 222, an A340-200 which is the Fri/Sat only CPT-LHR, stated during descent into London TMA that he had a problem with his nose wheel steering. This, I understand third hand, resulted in the nose gear wheels bursting on landing which resulted in the prolonged towing effort to clear 27L (45 mins). 
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Thanks for the right gen - I'm sorry, I thought that it was only the -400's in LHR. Was last there on Monday & there was a whole bunch of 74's, but as you guessed, I don't spend much time there.
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A correction, no tyres burst.(DtyCln you did say your info was third hand) Aircraft declared a low indicated hydraulic contents.Gear was lowered on alternate hence the doors stayed down.An hydraulic leak was found apparently in area of right landing gear bay.Also noted , center undercarraige did not come down.
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From the horse's mouth
The situation arose due to an ecam warning of a green hyd sys leak. after a few minutes of observation the leak continued and the eng driven pumps were switched off, hence the loss of the green hydraulic system. With no nose wheel steering and only the alternate braking system and 2 & 3 reverse the aircraft was stopped quite easily by the end of 27L.
The delay in getting off the runway was caused when the engines were shut down the aircraft seemed to settle with a slight bump. The ground crew then advised that the main gear doors were now touching the ground as they also hang down with a manual extension.
It took several minutes to locate some rope with which to hold the doors clear of the ground in order to avoid damaging them.
On disembarking, the rear of the aircraft aft of the gear bays had plenty of oil visible.
It transpired an "o" ring had failed in flight causing the problem.
The aircraft went home that night.
It was ZS-SLA an A340-200
The delay in getting off the runway was caused when the engines were shut down the aircraft seemed to settle with a slight bump. The ground crew then advised that the main gear doors were now touching the ground as they also hang down with a manual extension.
It took several minutes to locate some rope with which to hold the doors clear of the ground in order to avoid damaging them.
On disembarking, the rear of the aircraft aft of the gear bays had plenty of oil visible.
It transpired an "o" ring had failed in flight causing the problem.
The aircraft went home that night.
It was ZS-SLA an A340-200
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from the real horses mouth
The delay in the aircraft being towed from the runway was in fact that the Handling Agent who had 2 hours notice of the fact that the A340 would not be able to vacate could not get their act together !!!
They had 2 hours notice before arrival and even after the Full Emergency was declared at 06:45z by ATC it took them until 07:29z before a tug turned up. The aircraft had landed at 07:07z.
aircraft finally towed off at 07:46z causing an unecessary runway closure of 39 minutes.
ATC were so miffed about the delay they filed an MOR !!!
we do try and keep Heathrow moving but we are not helped sometimes .
They had 2 hours notice before arrival and even after the Full Emergency was declared at 06:45z by ATC it took them until 07:29z before a tug turned up. The aircraft had landed at 07:07z.
aircraft finally towed off at 07:46z causing an unecessary runway closure of 39 minutes.
ATC were so miffed about the delay they filed an MOR !!!
we do try and keep Heathrow moving but we are not helped sometimes .
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Capt
It is down to the handling agent to supply the tug plus any other equipment for example engineer/coaches etc but if we did ring round then 99 times out of a hundred the answer would be
" we dont handle SAA we have our own aircraft to handle" and we would have no joy. That time of the morning is normally a problem anyway.
Regarding BA we have our own problems with them regarding response times and have even comandered tugs on the taxiway to attend a disable aircraft.
I think Gonzo would bear me out on this one !!!
It is down to the handling agent to supply the tug plus any other equipment for example engineer/coaches etc but if we did ring round then 99 times out of a hundred the answer would be
" we dont handle SAA we have our own aircraft to handle" and we would have no joy. That time of the morning is normally a problem anyway.
Regarding BA we have our own problems with them regarding response times and have even comandered tugs on the taxiway to attend a disable aircraft.
I think Gonzo would bear me out on this one !!!
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Why not ring around? BA/Midland etc. would gladly help you clear the R/W as it affects us just as badly re: Diversions and long slot delays.
The delay in the aircraft being towed from the runway was in fact that the Handling Agent who had 2 hours notice of the fact that the A340 would not be able to vacate could not get their act together !!!
