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?.

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.

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 ?

My guess would be FADEC.

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.

No, not all four. Having been gifted the best strike in a 320 (DXB) the screens didn't even blink, never mind the FADECs.

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?

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.....

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......

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? :ugh:

nuf said

The correct one ..... one hopes

Every airline has their 5%.....

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.

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...

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.

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.

....and back to the C-17 please

bpp

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.)
b

Severe Weather Flying, Second edition, Dennis W. Newton, page 84.
Highly recommended!