singapore 747-400 has tail scrape@ akl
 

a singapore airlines 747-400 9v-smt had a major tail scrape leavi ng auckland bound for singapore this afternoon.. after circling for 30minutes and dumping fuel it landed safley back in auckland see www. nzoom.co.nz for more

More details have emerged of the incident at Auckland International Airport which led to a full emergency being declared this afternoon.

The tail of a Singapore Airlines jumbo jet struck the runway of the Airport during take-off.

The 747-400 took off around 3.20 this afternoon bound for Singapore.

It was forced to circle the airport several times and eye witnesses reported seeing the plane flying at extremely low altitudes before finally returning safely to the tarmac.

One eye witness phoned Radio Hauraki and said he saw the tail of the plane scraping along the runway during take-off, and briefly catching fire.

It is understood the passengers were forced to stay on board the jumbo jet immediately after landing because the crew were unable to power down the jumbo's engines.

A spokesman for Singapore Airlines says all passengers have now disembarked.

It is not yet known what went wrong during take-off procedures.

Other flights have been diverted to other cities during the emergency

I wonder how SQ will try and cover this one up?

They'll probably blame it on another Malaysian pilot.

Yeah, always find a scapegoat, and who could be a better scapegoat?

Hi all,

A friend says that this was part of the SIA Press release in Auckland yesterday.

" The pilot was under the command of a Captain with over 20 years flying experience, who has been with Singapore Airlines since 2001. Prior to this, he was a Captain with Air Lanka. He was accompanied by two first officers: a Senior First Officer with 12 years experience with Singapore Airlines, and a junior first officer who commenced flying on Boeing 747-400s in August 2002. The Captain was the pilot in command at the time. "

Isn't the captain always the Pilot in Command.

Or am I missing something here.

He is always responsible for the safe conduct of the flight.

...maybe the captain was the PF at the time.

could this be the first 747-400 tailstrike? too bad Being did not install a tail-skid.

Is the skipper an expat?

Middlepath,
MAS did a similar, if not better, job of scraping the tail in London a few years ago. The two APU access doors separated, damaging both tailplanes, and also setting off the APU fire alarm, as in this case with SQ. The rear pressure bulkhead was also damaged, and the aircraft was out of the air for months.

MAS Tailstrike in Heathrow
 

By a MAS skipper who thinks himself as God's gift to aviation, and so can do no wrong in flying inspite of an ealier bogging down a 747-200 on runway 33 in the old Subang airport.

That incident had brought humility to his arrogance character.