ONE TO REMEMBER
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Join Date: Sep 2001
Location: Florida
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ONE TO REMEMBER
I thought this was something of more than general interest. Supurb airmanship.
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This was condensed from an article in Flight International.
On August 24, 2001 an Air Transat Airbus A 320-200 was on a charter flight over the North Atlantic with 291 passengers and 13 crewmembers. The planehad departed Toronto and was bound for Lisbon Portugal. At 0525AM, at FL 390, the pilot reported a fuel problem and requested a diversion to Lages inthe Azores. He declared an emergency 23 minutes later and at 0613AM thestarboard engine flamed out. Only 13 minutes later at FL 320 the port engine flamed out; he was still 100NM from Lages. The crew prepared the aircraft for ditching. The two pilot crew prepared for the first dead stick landing in a digital fly-by-wire aircraft. The ram air turbine was deployed to provide emergency electric and hydraulic power. Pilots sidesticks were used to operate the control surfaces. At 0633AM, with the 10,870 foot runway at Lages in sight, the pilot extended the landing gear but elected not to use slats or flaps. He put it on the centerline, hard, blowing all tires but bringing it to a stop with 2,000 feet of runway left.
Preliminary investigation indicates the flameouts were a result of fuel
starvation caused by a fuel leak on a low pressure fuel line on the starboard engine. If the pilot had shut down the starboard engine he would have shut fuel off to the leaking pipe and saved the fuel to keep the port engine running, but probably he did not know where the leak was.
Cheers,
Ace 1
++++++++++++++++++++++++++
This was condensed from an article in Flight International.
On August 24, 2001 an Air Transat Airbus A 320-200 was on a charter flight over the North Atlantic with 291 passengers and 13 crewmembers. The planehad departed Toronto and was bound for Lisbon Portugal. At 0525AM, at FL 390, the pilot reported a fuel problem and requested a diversion to Lages inthe Azores. He declared an emergency 23 minutes later and at 0613AM thestarboard engine flamed out. Only 13 minutes later at FL 320 the port engine flamed out; he was still 100NM from Lages. The crew prepared the aircraft for ditching. The two pilot crew prepared for the first dead stick landing in a digital fly-by-wire aircraft. The ram air turbine was deployed to provide emergency electric and hydraulic power. Pilots sidesticks were used to operate the control surfaces. At 0633AM, with the 10,870 foot runway at Lages in sight, the pilot extended the landing gear but elected not to use slats or flaps. He put it on the centerline, hard, blowing all tires but bringing it to a stop with 2,000 feet of runway left.
Preliminary investigation indicates the flameouts were a result of fuel
starvation caused by a fuel leak on a low pressure fuel line on the starboard engine. If the pilot had shut down the starboard engine he would have shut fuel off to the leaking pipe and saved the fuel to keep the port engine running, but probably he did not know where the leak was.
Cheers,
Ace 1
