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US Airforce C17 4 engine failure.

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US Airforce C17 4 engine failure.

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Old 23rd September 2010 | 17:53
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US Airforce C17 4 engine failure.

According to an Ares Blog.
A US Airforce C17 over Pakistan Lost all 4 engines and a sizeable amount of onboard electronics in a lightning strike. 2 engines restarted the aircraft landed safely. radome described as "fried".
Anyone know more about this incident?.
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Old 23rd September 2010 | 18:29
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I would imagine that the operating crew could tell you quite a lot but I seriously doubt that they will.

Can't say I would blame them.
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Old 23rd September 2010 | 19:59
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Just wondering - is there any electric / electronic requirement to have the engine continue to operate ? I would think they shouldn't shutdown even in the case of a complete electric failure ?
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Old 23rd September 2010 | 20:06
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My guess would be FADEC.
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Old 23rd September 2010 | 20:20
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The FADECs are designed to run on their own power, regardless of what happens to the electrics in the plane.


Most of these kinds of reports later turn out to be temporary in nature and/or related to instruments.
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Old 23rd September 2010 | 20:23
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My guess would be FADEC.
No, not all four. Having been gifted the best strike in a 320 (DXB) the screens didn't even blink, never mind the FADECs.
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Old 24th September 2010 | 02:19
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FADEC systems have their own dedicated generator on each engine.

EW73

hey... 'fantom' did you have one of your ex Iraqi army tin hats on?
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Old 24th September 2010 | 09:57
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The reason i posted this was i find it very unusual, that a modern 4 engine fly by wire jet could lose all 4 engines following a lightning strike.
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Old 24th September 2010 | 10:35
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!?!?

The reason i posted this was i find it very unusual, that a modern 4 engine fly by wire jet could lose all 4 engines following a lightning strike.
Unless the story above, came from someone in that cockpit, who was deafened by lightning strike for few minutes and believed to have lost all 4.....
 
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Old 24th September 2010 | 13:52
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When I was flying the Brasilia, we had a crew report a dual engine failure on short final.

Turns out the left engine erroneously autofeathered itself. The burst of thrust as the prop coursened yawed the nose to the right. The crew interpreted that as a right engine failure and feathered the right one......
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Old 24th September 2010 | 22:54
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Hey Huck...

"..yawed the nose to the right. The crew interpreted that as a right engine failure and feathered the right one......

Didn't they have any engine indications in the flight deck?

nuf said
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Old 25th September 2010 | 00:02
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The correct one ..... one hopes
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Old 25th September 2010 | 00:08
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Every airline has their 5%.....
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Old 25th September 2010 | 00:22
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I know one guy who managed to lose both engines on a metroliner....going into KTVL at night...forgot to put on the anti ice on the prop spinners.

but on short final, switched the prop spinner heat on without putting on the ignition...ice melted, ran into engine, flamed out on short final but made the runway...took over half an hour to get to the gate though.
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Old 25th September 2010 | 11:15
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On the ERJ-145, I was told one could lose both in the event of a bad strike.
For this reason we were advised to start the APU if a strike looked likely.
The -145 had FADEC equipped engines.
 
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Old 25th September 2010 | 12:43
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Angel

On the ERJ-145, I was told one could lose both in the event of a bad strike.
For this reason we were advised to start the APU if a strike looked likely.
The -145 had FADEC equipped engines.
I was told the same thing by a UK operator, however; it's more a CAA dictated procedure, because they are concerned about both tail engines being too close together. This came from a TRE.

I have not heard about a similar procedure from either Embraer or US operators. I had two lightning strikes in the E145, one on the approach to PHL, the other into MAN and never had any resulting engine/FADEC issue. Some damage though...

FADEC systems have their own dedicated generator on each engine.
Additionally, they are usually located to the center of the fuselage to prevent any interference from lightning strikes etc. The famous Michael Faraday had shown that electricity doesn't penetrate the center of a cage/frame/car, etc.
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Old 25th September 2010 | 13:14
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When I was flying the Brasilia, we had a crew report a dual engine failure on short final.

Turns out the left engine erroneously autofeathered itself. The burst of thrust as the prop coursened yawed the nose to the right. The crew interpreted that as a right engine failure and feathered the right one....
I can believe that. During a dual instruction session at Canberra in a RAAF HS 748 the pilot was conducting an instrument take off from brakes release.
He was briefed the instructor would give him a simulated engine failure at lift off by pulling back a throttle. As the 748 became airborne, the instructor quickly closed the left engine throttle. The pilot immediately detected a yaw and pushed hard on the wrong rudder (as it turned out).

The aircraft yawed very sharply but fortunately the instructor managed to take over and get the wings level.

What happened was that when the instructor closed the left throttle very quickly, the propeller momentarily coarsened,causing the aircraft to initially yaw in the opposite direction than expected by the pilot under the hood. Throughout the take off roll he had his concentration pinned on the compass heading and detected the swing on the compass heading and reacted to the swing quickly and correctly.

All this happened in less than two seconds and his corrective rudder was instantaneous. A fraction of a second later the aircraft then swung strongly in the direction of the simulated failed engine and was not exactly helped by rudder in the same direction no matter how momentary.

Pulling throttles quickly in a turbo-prop aircraft especially near the deck can lead to an unpleasant surprise and the recent fatal accident at Darwin proves that.
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Old 26th September 2010 | 02:22
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....and back to the C-17 please

bpp
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Old 26th September 2010 | 10:44
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Not neccessarily a electrical failure... The FADEC has total control over the engine, incliuding the shutdown sequence, Perhaps a spurious signal triggered by the strike. Although, all four simultaniously ????
(Military a/c have extra protection against electromagnetic interfrerence.)
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Old 26th September 2010 | 11:08
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Probably the second worst thing that could happen is a flameout. Single flameouts due to lightning strikes are fairly common on airplanes with aft mounted small jet engines, and dual-engine flameouts have occurred. The reason for this seems to be the lightning channel sweeping past the engine inlet and disturbing the airflow. An airplane travelling at 450 knots will move 380 feet in one-half second, and a lightning flash with several return strokes can last that long. If the first lightning attachment point is at the nose, the lightning channel can sweep along the entire length of an airplane even if shorter strikes and slower speeds are involved. The temperature of the lightning channel itself can get up around 30,000ºC, which is not exactly what the engine manufacturers had in mind when they designed the engines for the operating environment. If a strike sweeps along only one side, it may snuff out one engine as it goes by. If the lightning channel orientation is side to side rather then more or less fore and aft (which is less common but apparently happens), two engine (or conceivably more, if there are more) could flame out...
Severe Weather Flying, Second edition, Dennis W. Newton, page 84.
Highly recommended!
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