Flymad From South Africa, joined Jun 2006, 207 posts, RR: 0 Posted (6 years 9 months 2 weeks 2 days 1 hour ago) and read 5096 times:
Hi all
This was probably discussed in depth at the time of the incident in the Azores and only being a member for a couple of months but i'm curious - (I'm not a pilot)
I was watching the "Flying on Empty" dramatization of this incident on Discovery channel last night and got the imnpression that, although the pilots did a fantastic job in landing the a/c successfully, as I understand it they were partly blamed for the incident by not diagnosing the fuel leak problem before turning on the wing cross-feed to correct the fuel imbalance. Surely they were just following the prescribed procedures that were in place as per the manual. Are pilots supposed to try and second guess any problems they might pick up should the manual not solve the problem? Would or could this not lead to an even graver situation? And then the pilots would be blamed as well - Catch 22 situation!
Comet4b From Canada, joined Jun 2006, 61 posts, RR: 0 Reply 1, posted (6 years 9 months 2 weeks 1 day 23 hours ago) and read 5036 times:
The pilots were criticised for not monitroing fuel consumption en route.Yes they did a marvellous job of bringing in the A330 safely but should never have had to do so if they had monitored fuel consumption.
A much better story is the saga of the Gimly Glider.Canadian piltos have shown both the 767 and A330 are pretty good gliders.
DAYflyer From United States of America, joined Sep 2004, 3807 posts, RR: 4 Reply 2, posted (6 years 9 months 2 weeks 1 day 23 hours ago) and read 5035 times:
It is an intensly interesting story. And yes the pilots were a little at fault for this incident, but just think how they would be lambasted if they had crashed the plane while landing?
LPLAspotter From Portugal, joined Jan 2005, 682 posts, RR: 1 Reply 3, posted (6 years 9 months 2 weeks 1 day 23 hours ago) and read 5018 times:
I arrived by the runway 5 minutes after it "landed". The passengers were being hearded on buses to be taken to the hospital for check ups. Man that plane did a number on the runway and if you know where to looks you can still see the scars. My friend Jim McFadden had a contracting company that repaired the runway so I got a close up look.
The National Geograpic program shows lots of shots of places that are not here. The approach, however, was filmed by a Puma helicopter over the city of Praia da Vitoria and is authentic. The tower in the sunrise I have no idea where that's from but it's definetly not here.
Starlionblue From Hong Kong, joined Feb 2004, 15870 posts, RR: 66 Reply 4, posted (6 years 9 months 2 weeks 1 day 23 hours ago) and read 5004 times:
Quoting Flymad (Thread starter): Surely they were just following the prescribed procedures that were in place as per the manual
That's the problem. They didn't follow the fuel leak checklists. If they had done so, the leak would have been contained and they could have made a one engine landing in the Azores.
In summary:
- Maintenance mounted the wrong fuel system part in the engine. This caused rubbing in flight and fuel line rupture.
- The pilots failed to follow procedure and thus the leak was not contained.
- The pilots did a great job of dead sticking the aircraft to a conveniently located island.
The pilots are seen as some sort of heroes. In a way they are. But the fact remained they made some pretty big errors which led them to a situation requiring the hero stuff.
"Use your superior flying skills to avoid getting into situations where you may have to use them."
"There are no stupid questions, but there are a lot of inquisitive idiots." - from Citadel by John Ringo
FraT From Germany, joined Sep 2003, 1101 posts, RR: 1 Reply 5, posted (6 years 9 months 2 weeks 1 day 22 hours ago) and read 4966 times:
Quoting Comet4b (Reply 1): A much better story is the saga of the Gimly Glider.Canadian piltos have shown both the 767 and A330 are pretty good gliders.
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From South Africa, joined Jun 2006, 207 posts, 
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