DHL Boeing 757/200 emergency in Costa Rica...

[Jet Jockey A4]

https://www.reddit.com/r/aviation/co..._at_sjo_costa/

[Chiefttp]

Evident,y they took off, lost their left hydraulic system and this accident occurred on their return to the Airfield. Looks like they landed fine.

[AmuDarya]

You Tube

[AmuDarya]

[For goodness sake]

Hang about- what is Qantas doing at San Jose- doesn't American fly that sector for them?

[BANANASBANANAS]

Hard to say for sure but it looks like he might have been running out of stopping distance. It would certainly explain the smoke from the wheels. What I don't understand though is how they wouldn't have picked up a landing performance issue when they ran the checklist and diverted to somewhere with a longer runway if necessary. I believe they had only just taken off so they should have had plenty of fuel. On the other hand, the B757 does not have a fuel jettison system so I wonder if they were heavy (or even overweight) for this approach?

Pure speculation of course.

[India Four Two]

From https://www.atsb.gov.au/media/577598...-014_final.pdf

[MLHeliwrench]

Mayday call had loss of left hydraulics

Mayday call had loss of left hydraulics. Gear doors down, RAT out? Only brakes on one side? Flaps partially down? Challenging situation to be sure.

video https://www.reddit.com/r/aircrashinv...tm_name=iossmf

[chumley]

My thoughts exactly!

[ScepticalOptomist]

The “landing” was fine, the Ground loop at the end into the ditch caused the tail to break. Intentional? Stuck brake on that side from over heating? Who knows…

[BuzzBox]

Originally Posted by MLHeliwrench

Mayday call had loss of left hydraulics. Gear doors down, RAT out? Only brakes on one side? Flaps partially down? Challenging situation to be sure.

video https://www.reddit.com/r/aircrashinv...tm_name=iossmf

If they only lost the L hydraulic system they should still have had normal braking, which is powered by the R system. The apparent lack of braking and no reverse thrust on either side might suggest they lost both the L & R hydraulic systems. They might have been left with accumulator braking only, with no anti skid.

[BANANASBANANAS]

Originally Posted by MLHeliwrench

Mayday call had loss of left hydraulics. Gear doors down, RAT out? Only brakes on one side? Flaps partially down? Challenging situation to be sure.

video https://www.reddit.com/r/aircrashinv...tm_name=iossmf

Loss of the Left Hydraulic System should cause none of those symptoms. Normal brakes still available, two Hydraulic systems still available. I flew B757/B767 from 1994-2005 and loss of Left Hyd system in the sim was a fairly regular scenario. Run the checklist, check landing performance and plan accordingly. It was never more than a PAN call.

That said, there may be more to come out of this story yet.

[Terrey]

Landed with a 10kt tailwind, partial flap (Hyd Sys L) , 3000’ elevation and heavy weight. Not surprising they were running out of runway. Landed Rwy07, wind 250/10. Only circling approach available Rwy25 with a displaced threshold. Probably should have looked at going somewhere else.

[BuzzBox]

Originally Posted by Terrey

Landed with a 10kt tailwind, partial flap (Hyd Sys L) , 3000’ elevation and heavy weight. Not surprising they were running out of runway. Landed Rwy07, wind 250/10. Only circling approach available Rwy25 with a displaced threshold. Probably should have looked at going somewhere else.

The FCOM gives a landing distance of approx 5,400 ft for Hydraulic System Left Inop, good braking, MLW, 3,000 ft elev, 10 kt tail, and 1% uphill slope. The runway length is 9,878 ft.

There should have been plenty of runway available if only the Left Hydraulic system was inoperative.

[EDLB]

Landing was fine but from the video it looked that they had only asymmetric braking available which caused the 180 into the ditch. I think it was good airmanship to stick to the nearest, you never know what may deteriorate further. And they got out unharmed, only the airframe was sold to the insurance.

[cdeanda]

Rushed exit on taxiway Kilo with degraded hyd?

Could it be possible that they tried to vacate on the "high speed" taxiway Kilo with the degraded hydraulics? (From what someone posted above, the left sys has the nosewheel steering). We'll see. The good news is no one was harmed

[Matt48]

Good landing , rollout good but fast, didn't look like #1 reverser deployed, how do brakes lock, aren't they ABS .
Got it on the ground while there's still some hydraulics left.

[blue up]

So, is that the 9th 757 lost in service? Broke in the same place as G-BYAG

[Matt48]

Very lucky there was no fire, full fuel on board, #2 engine ripped upwards from wing going over the ditch, lots of white smoke after the red dust.

[andrasz]

Originally Posted by cdeanda

Could it be possible that they tried to vacate on the "high speed" taxiway Kilo...

They had another 1000m of surfaced area ahead, more likely it was a loss of directional control. Rudder was deflected left throughout the landing roll.