Emergency landing Air Maroc on EHAM june 6th
 

An Air Maroc Boeing 737-400 (CN-RMF) made an emergency landing short before 22:00 local time at Schiphol airport, because of a left engine failure short after takeoff. Flight AT-685 left from Schiphol for Nador, experienced an engine fire/failure and after a slow climb and low turn above the city of Haarlem returned to land on the polder runway 18R. Crew and passengers (162) have left the plane safely.

A firetruck tipped over on the way there too. There was a photo of it, but apparently that's from another accident a while ago. Media reports state that the people in the fire truck are fine.

From local news: the plane was able to taxi to the gate on its own. They also report birdstrike as a possible cause.

Groot alarm op Schiphol - Binnenland - Telegraaf.nl [24 uur actueel, ook mobiel] [binnenland]


Mayday call. Engine fire shortly after takeoff. Plane flew low over Haarlem & returned to Schiphol. Major 'alarm' at Schiphol - full emergency response. In and outbound traffic delayed for several minutes during emergency landing. Sight of what appeared to be a 'burning' plane flying overhead caused some panic to break out among witnesses around Schiphol. Landing was without incident - no injuries. A fire truck toppled enroute to incident - no injuries.





Twitter photo: Inciden schiphol airport, plane on runway,5th runway ,pssngrs... on Twitpic






AMSTERDAM - Bij de luchthaven Schiphol is een zondagavond even voor tien uur een vliegtuig in de problemen geraakt. Een toestel van Royal Air Maroc heeft na brand in een motor een noodlanding moeten maken. Na een 'mayday'-oproep van de piloten werd groot alarm geslagen en rukten de hulpdiensten met groot materieel uit.


http://images2-telegraaf.nl/multimed...el_728402d.jpg Twitteraar '4wdtravel' plaatste deze foto op twitter, gemaakt vlak na de noodlanding Foto: 4wdtravel/Twitpic






Dat hebben bronnen rond Schiphol zondagavond gemeld. Het vliegverkeer heeft vanwege de noodlanding een aantal minuten stil gelegen.
De noodlanding op de Polderbaan is goed verlopen en het toestel staat veilig aan de grond. De Luchtverkeersleiding Nederland (LVNL) laat weten dat het toestel op eigen kracht naar de gate kon rijden. Er zijn geen gewonden gevallen door de noodlanding.
De Boeing 737-800, met bestemming Nador, raakte kort na opstijgen vanaf Schiphol in de problemen. Het toestel vloog vervolgens nog een laag rondje over Haarlem en keerde daarna terug naar Schiphol. Het is nog onduidelijk hoeveel mensen er in het vliegtuig zaten.
Grote paniek
De noodlanding zorgde voor grote paniek in de omgeving van Schiphol, omdat meerdere mensen het brandende toestel over hebben zien vliegen.
Een brandweerwagen die op weg was naar de plek waar het toestel zou landen, kantelde onderweg. Dat gebeurde op het terrein van de luchthaven, liet het Korps landelijke politiediensten weten. Bij dit ongeval raakte niemand gewond.

Of course, the a/c was reported to be "dumping fuel" on its way back to AMS :hmm:

Toestel Air Maroc met brandende motor terug naar Schiphol

Quick translation:
Those residing in the area around Schiphol airport feel they have narrowly escaped disaster. Residents of the town of Vijfhuizen state the aircraft dumped kerosene while overhead.

Oh dear :}

'According to eyewitnesses the plane was flying lower than 100 meters.'

Groot alarm op Schiphol - Binnenland - Telegraaf.nl [24 uur actueel, ook mobiel] [binnenland]

Video

Video: Voorzorgslanding RAM-toestel Schiphol na botsing met vogels - Luchtvaart.tv

Birdstrike after take-off, engine failure and return.
No engine fire.
Looks like a job well done

Volkskrant:
Translation:
"The National Police Service Corps concludes after a first investigation that no errors have been made by the Flight Crew during the emergency at Schiphol airport last night. The emergency was caused by a birdstrike. The Dutch Safety Board investigates the incident.
According to a spokesman the collision with the birds caused major damage to one of the two engines, and the fuselage of the aircraft. The engine did not caught fire, but was shutdown according to standard procedures. There was a lot of smoke.
...
The captain reports a collision with 'many big birds, probably geese'
...
The emergency landing did not cause disruption in the air traffic. The aircraft of Royal Air Maroc will be on the ground for at least two weeks. The airline sents its technicians from Casablanca to the Netherlands to do the needed repairs on the aircraft. Based on the results of the National Police Service Corps research, the Public Prosecution Service decided not to further investigate this case."


The geese strike again...

ATCast

Thanks for this update. Sounds like a good balance of responsibilities between the two agencies :ok:

Nicely done Royal Air Maroc Crew.

:ok:

If it was all so nicely done , why would many people in Haarlem comment that the plane was so low they thought it would crash well short of Schiphol?

I thought the clim rate on single engine was still good enough to achieve at least a thousand feet or more?

Surely height = additional safety in case of a flight in trouble?

Is there a reason for a plane on one engine to stay so low (some say maximum 100 metres, 300 ft) during the 180 turn back to Schiphol?

Ever tried to guess an altitude? I have, was never right. There is nothing as unreliable as an 'eyewitness'.

For instance some eyewitnesses said they saw the B734 dumping kerosine, wich is very interesting...as that type doesn't have the capabillity to do that!

vanHorck, you make the mistake of BELIEVING what you read. Non aviation people (and aviation people for that matter) may not be that skilled at calculating height over the ground. The public in that area are not used to see a relatively large airliner at "circuit height" over their houses. A B737-800 flying straight and level at a perfectly legal 1500-2000 feet may seem (to the eye) a lot lower than it actually is. Had the aircraft indeed strayed below minimum safe altitude you can rest assure that the authorities would have investigated the incident further.

van Horck:

I actually thought about trying to answer your questions and then I had a serious outbreak of common sense and realised that it would simply be a complete waste of time.

Don't forget that people who live there are used to departures with all engines working. That means a certain altitude. In this case that altitude was probably half of what they normaly see or hear and therefore quite unusual.

Pictures here
http://www.scramble.nl/forum/viewtop...7914&start=555

They were lucky that only eng#1 was hit. If the other also ingested a goose than she was doomed for sure.

Good job by the crew.

The net path on a twin engine is minimum 2,4% on 1 engine,so at low speeds it is less then 1000 ft/min

Thank you for the nice mix of answers. Obviously any good landing in such a circumstance is an excellent landing, and fab that no one got injured. A dry Hudson landing on one engine it seems to have been.

I'm aware of the unreliability of non-pilot witnesses. Probably even pilots included. I was just surprised he may have been relatively low. As a PPL i intended the question as follows (sorry English not being my mother tongue):

Would a 737 with Engine Failure on Take Off (after a single engine birdstrike) be trained to continue the climb initially to an altitude of ..... (feet) or to level off initially and immediately initiate a return to the field?

Pictures of the toppled-over firetruck that was on the way to the aircraft. :}
http://www.noordhollandsdagblad.nl/m...0_1713964j.jpg
http://www.noordhollandsdagblad.nl/m...2_1713965j.jpg

And plane damage pictures:
http://lh6.ggpht.com/_AGoOHDpGP_8/TA...0/IMG_0234.jpg
http://lh6.ggpht.com/_AGoOHDpGP_8/TA...0/IMG_0235.jpg
http://lh6.ggpht.com/_AGoOHDpGP_8/TA...0/IMG_0236.jpg
http://lh6.ggpht.com/_AGoOHDpGP_8/TA...0/IMG_0237.jpg
http://lh6.ggpht.com/_AGoOHDpGP_8/TA...0/IMG_0238.jpg
http://lh6.ggpht.com/_AGoOHDpGP_8/TA...0/IMG_0239.jpg

At least 4 hits, must have been scary.
All too understandable to choose for an immediate return. Well done Air Maroc!

Geese were not the biggest risk at AMS, I guess there will be some more focus on them.
If I were a goose I would avoid Schiphol, Foie Gras in high demand!

Nice documentation pictures:ok:

About what is expected for an 8 lb bird fully ingested at takeoff RPMs

Quite a different outcome from the Hudson River event.