Saudia plane catches fire
 

Saudia plane catches fire
By Abdul Rahman Almotawa & Wajdi Sindy (Arab News)

RIYADH, 2 August — A Saudi Arabian Airlines Airbus-300 flying from Madinah with 247 passengers and 12 crew member aboard caught fire just before landing at the King Abdul Aziz International Airport in Jeddah on Monday.

Six passengers on SV1535 suffered minor injuries during emergency evacuation, an airline official said.

The crew and airport security acted swiftly to evacuate passengers of the aircraft immediately after landing at Jeddah. Describing the accident as minor, Saudia’s Director General Dr. Khaled ibn Bakr said the passengers were injured while jumping out of the aircraft using emergency ramp.

An official airline statement said the right engine of the aircraft caught fire just before landing at Jeddah at around 11.30 p.m. Passengers said they had heard a crackling sound few minutes before landing.

Airline sources said the flight scheduled at 7.00 p.m. took off from Madinah three hours late due to mechanical errors. Saudia has 11 Airbus aircraft in a fleet of 126.

Well, atleast it is an improvement when you
take into account how bad the previous major
fire incident on Saudia was. I am talking of the Saudia Tristar Fire at Riyadh in 1980 where the evacuation was NON EXISTENT and it took more than 20 minutes for the doors to be opened after touch down!

fire in the air or water on the ground, that's the worst things that can happen to you!!

[ 03 August 2001: Message edited by: mach 84 ]

I hate to say it, and I hope it isn't a precursor, but its precisely why many of us have left there. Unfortunately there will be tougher times ahead.

The worst bit about the TriStar Accident at Riyadh old Airport was the way they left the hulk sitting next to the runway as a constant reminder.

It used to give me the willies seeing the burnt-out remains so close to an active runway.

Is the Old riyadh Airport still being used as a Military base? I remember many a night at the Sahari Hotel oposite.

If you read the CVR of the Riyadh incident, you'll see that they couldn't shut down the #2 engine - which of course meant that the aircraft was pressurised and the doors couldn't open.

The pax panicked and invaded the flight deck - as far as I recall something like 30 bodies were found in there.

Nasty!

Guv,

I have not heard the CVR, but according to reports, although the number 2 throttle was "stuck", this engine had been shut down before the landing at Riyadh. There is a report on this by Andrew Ayres at
http://www.airsafetyonline.com/indepth/ayers/163.shtml
http://www.airsafetyonline.com/image...saudi163/1.jpg

Here's the CVR transcript ... makes for chilling reading, as these things always do.
http://aviation-safety.net/cvr/cvr_sv163.shtml

And yes, you're right ... looks like they shut #2 down at the last minute.

Interesting photo, btw ... I see that SV was as PR minded as always! :rolleyes:

<you'll see that they couldn't shut down the #2 engine - which of course meant that the aircraft was pressurised and the doors couldn't open.>

Perhaps the outflow valves could have been opened in 'manual' when on the ground, then the A/C would have de-pressurised regardless of the number of engines running.


Regards
Exeng

Yes, the airport is being used for military and VIP purposes. During recurrent training it was always fair ball to talk about every other airlines' short comings and their accidents, but one never ever dared bring up this one. BTW, the FD crew were not alive to do anything about outflow valves.

We handled that Saudi case as part of HR management / CRM course .....
There could not have been a better example of how CRM failed ...
The captain denied anything was wrong till right at the last minute ...he in fact whistled his way through most of the tradegy ..
The first officer was a youngster that was only on board , literally because he spoke english well ...very very limited experience
The Eng was later found to be dyslexic ...he even paid for his own training because no one else would bother hiring him/training him ...
When the first bells, then stopped , then went off went off again to signal a fire in the cargo hold ..the captain ask the Eng for the check list ..last mentioned looked then announced there was'nt any....but when the Eng lleft the cockpit on the request of the captain to go aft to check personally what the hell was potting ...the captain picked up the file and found the check list needed ...he then muttered how stupid the Eng was ...and then instead of following the check list he closed it and replaced the file in it's place ....
The cabin crew came several times to teel the captain that the passengers are panicking about the smoke billowing through the floor boards ..he continued to whistle and then finally made the decision to divert ...ATC was ill informed about the seriousness of the matter at first and this subsequently led to the FS not being fully prepared ..not that that would have changed the outcome ...
They landed and instead of applying max bvraking and stopping the machine and evacuating ASAP ...they rolled right through to the end .....much to dismay/suprise of the emergency services in attendance ..who then had to give chase ...no final app / approach checks were done ...or were not done properly ..no proper briefing from the captain ..hence they forgot to de-pressurise the cabin ...so the the fire services stood by helplessly watching the people geeting incinerated inside ...
The mind boggles !!!!
As I say an excellent CRM case study...even more so if you get to watch the "make shift" reconstruction video ...
:eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :confused: :eek:

That photo is not how I remember it looking. I don't remember holes in the roof or the paint on it. Either my memory is playing tricks (quite possible as it was in 1982-3 I was there) or there were two burned out hulks at the Old Airport.

Nearly twenty years ago but I was sure it was just a complete plane but rust coloured.

The one I remember was on the left about half/two thirds of the way down the northerlyish runway.

777AV8R Hi there mate. Did you really think that they would discuss this in CRM?? That would be almost as bad as having the FA’s join the cockpit crew in the same CRM class or even the swimming pool…… :)

Guv/Newswatcher thanks for the links, but Guv can you check your link, it doesn’t appear to be working.

Strength-5, hate to nit-pick, but the Captain most certainly wasn't whistling, in his religion doing so would be a way of summoning a genie or devil. I think that you will find that he was praying. Was your CRM class based on the World In Action video?

It is extremely distressing to observe the Captains actions and the actions of the Captain on the Delhi flight which was involved in an midair collision. Our ultimate faith may be in the hands of God, but I for one would like to avoid that meeting for as long as possible.


Mutt.

Mutt - Just tried the link and it definitely works. Of course, if you're back in Saudi, it might be being censored!! :D :D :D

You're right - the captain was singing in Arabic on two occasions; and rather more interestingly, at 18:35:57 just before touchdown he says "Tell them not to evacuate".

Yikes! :eek: :rolleyes: :eek:

Two rumours doing the rounds in Saudi in the early 80s.

1 The fire was started in the cabin by someone trying to make a cup of tea on a spirit burner.

2 The Aircraft was put into the hold because the Kings' Aircraft was about to take-off and he couldn't be delayed.

Obviously just rumours

When I was at LMSC a few weeks back, one of the people I met was one of the people that had been involved with the investigation - he said that it definitely started in the aft cargo hold, but thanks to the fire department raking out all the bags etc they were never able to pinpoint the precise source of ignition.

New bloke, I think you will find the "spirt stove" was more likely to be the cause of the PIA 707 incident over Taif, the previous year.

CRM does not exist in Saudia, I have heard stories of crew coming out of the flt deck to do NAMAZ,this does not mean same as crew rest time.This is praying in the ailse of the a/c.
:eek: :eek: :eek: :p

MIG29MK
I presume that you have extensive cockpit experience on SV flights to have come up with a couple of statements like that?

Guv
That website doesnt like me.....

Just for information, the A300 Captain was an expat! One old lady died following the evacuation from an apparent heart attack.

Mutt http://www.stopstart.fsnet.co.uk/smilie/guin.gif

One of the first Kapton Victims: SV163

BBC Documentary "Die by Wire"