A Malaysian Airlines A380 lost a nose wheel on landing at Kuala Lumpur airport. A photo of the incident was released on Instagram, no further information is available right now.



Source
https://www.instagram.com/p/BaRWv5oFP4o/

Talk about one dirty looking aircraft

…and they're still dragging it around ON the nose wheel?

Well that isn't confidence inspiring. Where we think we're gonna land with this one, maintenance related or design fault...

Besides the dirtiness of the plane, I also noticed two plain white panels below upper deck doors. Are these the escape slide hatches ? If so, does it mean the slides were used at some point, and they replaced the hatches with plain white ones ?

First A380 wheel incident? But lets talk about how dirty the plane is...

Mimark06 wrote:

…and they're still dragging it around ON the nose wheel?

Presumably it's designed to sustain the max weight on the nose landing gear using one wheel?

Well that bird definitely needs a bath!

Good thing everyone is okay. I suspect the remaining wheel is designed to take all the weight on it's own. I don't mind the dirt. I love dirty birds.

Well if you cannot even clean the aircraft, what about the serious service items.

I would not even get onboard that bird in that state.

Honestly that aircraft looks so neglected, it looks like it’s been in a boneyard.

One of our managers did a piece of work looking for correlation between 5s and quality complaints.

There was a direct correlation.

So therefore if you cannot be arsed to clean it, you ain't arsed to maintain it.

No wonder the wheel fell off.

Passengers are lucky they got to the airport on that bird

With the unfortunate recent events affecting MH, things in their control like cleanliness and brand image should be preeequisites to continue operating profitably. When I flew on them earlier this year they were good, but this isn’t going to help.

Mimark06 wrote:

…and they're still dragging it around ON the nose wheel?

It's just a question of balance.
Unload the first class section from the front, and leave all the cattle at the back, and before you know it, there will be hardly any weight on the nose at all.

Just don't over-do it!

jetblueguy22 wrote:

Talk about one dirty looking aircraft

If you told me the picture was of a MH A380 after being stored for a year I would have believed it. It looks so dirty and old. Certainly needs a clean. It would give AF a run for their money.

NYPECO wrote:

First A380 wheel incident? But lets talk about how dirty the plane is...

I think we can talk about both, because both are pretty shockingly awful.

KarelXWB wrote:

A Malaysian Airlines A380 lost a nose wheel on landing at Kuala Lumpur airport. A photo of the incident was released on Instagram, no further information is available right now.



Source
https://www.instagram.com/p/BaRWv5oFP4o/

What happened to that a380? The livery is so dirty.

Just basking in the heat & humidty that is KUL. You should see the 747 classic freighters that have been sitting around much longer.

But it's not been uncommon for 1 or 2 of the A380s to be sitting idle on the ramp for some longer periods of time while the other 4 are rotated in & out on the LHR flights. 9M-MNC has been sitting around for a little while now.

lowbank wrote:

One of our managers did a piece of work looking for correlation between 5s and quality complaints.

There was a direct correlation.

So therefore if you cannot be arsed to clean it, you ain't arsed to maintain it.

No wonder the wheel fell off.

Passengers are lucky they got to the airport on that bird

I agree. Especially during a time when MAS is constantly trying to (re)build consumer confidence from past events (regardless of 'why' they occurred), and more current financial/management 'changes'. 'Street appeal' (VERY dirty v clean) is a tell tale sign of deeper 'issues'. Personally, MAS doesn't inspire 'trust' for me to fly them.

Did it lose a "wheel" or just a tyre?

lowbank wrote:

I would not even get onboard that bird in that state.

Of course. Any airline flying a dirty or shabby plane must be unsafe, right?

MANMatthew wrote:

Passengers are lucky they got to the airport on that bird

Hyperbole, much?

Fake news.....am I the only one to notice that they photoshopped another livery on an AF A380?

Sorry, would not be A.Net if I did not.

Mimark06 wrote:

…and they're still dragging it around ON the nose wheel?

They are not dragging on the nose wheel, but on the strut. And on what point the shut pull, but where it is supposed to be pulled?

This thread just shows how A.net forums have become today. Negligent, ignorant, and even stupidity to some extent.

I didn't see so much reaction that "I'll never go onboard Ryanair/Air Canada/KLM/ANA/etc again" when they dropped something from the sky, whether it's wingbox cover, wheel, etc. It's just another bad day at work, aircraft's such a complex machine, something is deemed to fail at some point. You guys make it sounds like your cars/motorcycles, fridges, mobile, laptop etc. never fail. It's not like MH's two 777s crashed due to maintenance reason or they have any significant maintenance issue caused by cost cutting/negligent for the sake of this discussion.

Michael

I really have to say that, while the nose wheel event is concerning and deserves attention to find what/ how/ why happened, it is extremely unfair to conclude without any proof that this is related to maintenance issues. I read some posts here and some people conclude that MH is almost a dangerous airline ( passengers being lucky because they survived a trip on MH )...because the aircraft looks dirty.
Please....let’s be serious.
My car is white, after 8 days parked in my driveway some dirt is all over it...am I a reckless driver for that ? NO. Is it my car unsafe or less valuable for that ? NO.
Let’s be serious. An A380 with probably around 6.000.000 parts have some dirt here and there and ONE part have a failure that needs to be investigated. That doesn’t mean the airline, the aircraft or the crew are a danger for the flying public.

Rgds.
G.

scbriml wrote:

Did it lose a "wheel" or just a tyre?

lowbank wrote:

I would not even get onboard that bird in that state.

Of course. Any airline flying a dirty or shabby plane must be unsafe, right?

MANMatthew wrote:

Passengers are lucky they got to the airport on that bird

Hyperbole, much?

Firstly, it was a wheel. You'd be able to see the rest of the assembly if it was "just" a burst tire.

Secondly, you're absolutely right. The literal filthiest, dirtiest planes I've ever seen were DL birds. And not that long ago either; I'm talking right around 2010-2012. And rows and rows of them too. It was to the point that I honestly wondered how it was that their partners at AF had the reputation, considering DL's fleet was much larger.

In any case, none of their planes ever crashed or took a delay over it, so I really don't see what the fuss is about. I agree with whomever posted up thread about people being stupidly over reactive on these things.

undertheradar wrote:

lowbank wrote:

One of our managers did a piece of work looking for correlation between 5s and quality complaints.

There was a direct correlation.

So therefore if you cannot be arsed to clean it, you ain't arsed to maintain it.

No wonder the wheel fell off.

Passengers are lucky they got to the airport on that bird

I agree. Especially during a time when MAS is constantly trying to (re)build consumer confidence from past events (regardless of 'why' they occurred), and more current financial/management 'changes'. 'Street appeal' (VERY dirty v clean) is a tell tale sign of deeper 'issues'. Personally, MAS doesn't inspire 'trust' for me to fly them.

What completely ignorant post. Aircraft washes are not MX items. While cleaning crews are sometimes overseen by MX, this is a different department. What you're saying is the equivalent of stating that because an airline charges for exit row seating, they must have shitty MX and are unsafe. Complete non-sequitur.

On a side note, I can't believe I'm defending Malaysian. Thanks a lot. ...

teriyaki wrote:

Well that isn't confidence inspiring. Where we think we're gonna land with this one, maintenance related or design fault...

I hate to say it, but probably MX. Something as simple as using the wrong spacer or bearing race can totally cause this to happen. If it were a design issue, if think we'd have seen more of it over the last decade. I dont have better evidence than that, but it's the most experience based guess I can loft. I've seen this elsewhere (yes, even here in the US with our top notch carriers; it happens).

Gonzalo wrote:

I really have to say that, while the nose wheel event is concerning and deserves attention to find what/ how/ why happened, it is extremely unfair to conclude without any proof that this is related to maintenance issues. I read some posts here and some people conclude that MH is almost a dangerous airline ( passengers being lucky because they survived a trip on MH )...because the aircraft looks dirty.
Please....let’s be serious.
My car is white, after 8 days parked in my driveway some dirt is all over it...am I a reckless driver for that ? NO. Is it my car unsafe or less valuable for that ? NO.
Let’s be serious. An A380 with probably around 6.000.000 parts have some dirt here and there and ONE part have a failure that needs to be investigated. That doesn’t mean the airline, the aircraft or the crew are a danger for the flying public.

Rgds.
G.

While I do think it's likely traceable to MX for the aforementioned reasons, I totally agree with your thinking here.

The 380 looks like being recovered after sliding off the runway (i.e. the dirty marks on the plane).
For other airlines, the dirty look of their planes should not be a big issue,
but for MH, it really matters as they need to rebuild their image,
such a dirty looks will make me feeling that they are not maintain their fleets properly.

Anyone else notice R1 and R3 emergency slide doors have been swapped or replaced?

rikkus67 wrote:

Anyone else notice R1 and R3 emergency slide doors have been swapped or replaced?

Someone did:

Theseus wrote:

Besides the dirtiness of the plane, I also noticed two plain white panels below upper deck doors. Are these the escape slide hatches ? If so, does it mean the slides were used at some point, and they replaced the hatches with plain white ones ?

Does anyone know what the story is with those? Is it something that is generally replaced under normal circumstances?

V/F

It's sad to see a once nice airline not show their livery with pride by keeping it clean and shiny. The A350 will be entering their fleet soon so hopefully they up their game a bit. Not only that, the dirt increases weight which decreases efficiency. As for the nose wheel, sh*t happens. All airlines suffer from technical difficulties every now and then.

DarkSnowyNight wrote:

Firstly, it was a wheel. You'd be able to see the rest of the assembly if it was "just" a burst tire.

I didn't think it was clear from the angle of the NG - the missing part is hidden behind the good wheel.

Some of the posters here should get a compulsory intelligence check (which they would most likely fail).

Seriously, the level of some comments is so low that it makes me depressed.

oldannyboy wrote:

Some of the posters here should get a compulsory intelligence check (which they would most likely fail).

Seriously, the level of some comments is so low that it makes me depressed.

The same here...

So much talk of the airplane being so dirty.
The reason for the filth is simply that the cleaning work is subcontracted out to Air France.

The dreaded 21-wheel landing.

LoganTheBogan wrote:

It's sad to see a once nice airline not show their livery with pride by keeping it clean and shiny. Not only that, the dirt increases weight which decreases efficiency.

I would add; surface dirt increases drag, and ultimately that costs $$$.
Sometimes a good clean-up can pay for itself in fuel saved.

Back in the days of the King's Cup Air Race, you would see competitors waxing their aircraft to an immaculate sheen, in the hope it would gain them ½kt extra airspeed which might make all the difference. Same philosophy; different end product.

LoganTheBogan wrote:

As for the nose wheel, sh*t happens.

Yep, it happened all down the side of that A380 too.

VirginFlyer wrote:

rikkus67 wrote:

Anyone else notice R1 and R3 emergency slide doors have been swapped or replaced?

Someone did:

Theseus wrote:

Besides the dirtiness of the plane, I also noticed two plain white panels below upper deck doors. Are these the escape slide hatches ? If so, does it mean the slides were used at some point, and they replaced the hatches with plain white ones ?

Does anyone know what the story is with those? Is it something that is generally replaced under normal circumstances?

V/F

My guess is something was found and required them to be replaced/repaired. Also with MAH planning removing these birds from mainline service with the A350's they may have deemed it uneconomical to paint them to match the current livery when they will probably be painted in a livery for their charter airline if they are still planning on doing this.

Just a guess on my part.

Brett

I was told the reason AF planes are so dirty is that they don't open up enough new routes, (pause) the only time they are washed is during the water cannon salute on arrival.

readytotaxi wrote:

I was told the reason AF planes are so dirty is that they don't open up enough new routes, (pause) the only time they are washed is during the water cannon salute on arrival.

Good point, That explains the B747 retirement water salute. I guess CDG ARFF is only trained force to give a water salute without a single drop touching the frame.

ikolkyo wrote:

Honestly that aircraft looks so neglected, it looks like it’s been in a boneyard.

This is an insult to all aircraft stored on boneyards!!

N14AZ wrote:

ikolkyo wrote:

Honestly that aircraft looks so neglected, it looks like it’s been in a boneyard.

This is an insult to all aircraft stored on boneyards!!

Ha-ha. You are not wrong there.
The only thing contaminating those desert birds is a fine, invisible layer of radioactivity.

arvo wrote:

My guess is something was found and required them to be replaced/repaired. Also with MAH planning removing these birds from mainline service with the A350's they may have deemed it uneconomical to paint them to match the current livery when they will probably be painted in a livery for their charter airline if they are still planning on doing this.

It makes sense indeed! Thanks.

N14AZ wrote:

ikolkyo wrote:

Honestly that aircraft looks so neglected, it looks like it’s been in a boneyard.

This is an insult to all aircraft stored on boneyards!!

Wow I really am insulting them, all those aircraft look much nicer. Haha

scbriml wrote:

Did it lose a "wheel" or just a tyre?

lowbank wrote:

I would not even get onboard that bird in that state.

Of course. Any airline flying a dirty or shabby plane must be unsafe, right?

MANMatthew wrote:

Passengers are lucky they got to the airport on that bird

Hyperbole, much?

I didn’t say this sentence?

MANMatthew wrote:

With the unfortunate recent events affecting MH, things in their control like cleanliness and brand image should be preeequisites to continue operating profitably. When I flew on them earlier this year they were good, but this isn’t going to help.

Fully agree. Seems ridiculous that an airline trying to reverse its fortunes looks so uninviting, especially on a head turner like the A380

Glad to see some of you on here still have a sense of humour!

Have they found the errant wheel yet...?

scbriml wrote:

Of course. Any airline flying a dirty or shabby plane must be unsafe, right?

No, but if you have a filthy plane that happens to experience an unusual technical incident then there might be a connection. Might be.

SheikhDjibouti wrote:

Sometimes a good clean-up can pay for itself in fuel saved.

Back in the days of the King's Cup Air Race, you would see competitors waxing their aircraft to an immaculate sheen, in the hope it would gain them ½kt extra airspeed which might make all the difference. Same philosophy; different end product.

I keep my little Piper Cherokee in pristine condition for that very reason. I may fly at an eye-watering speed of only 120 kt, but I figure even my little bug smasher can benefit from a clean and obstruction free surface.

arvo wrote:

VirginFlyer wrote:

rikkus67 wrote:

Anyone else notice R1 and R3 emergency slide doors have been swapped or replaced?

Someone did:

Theseus wrote:

Besides the dirtiness of the plane, I also noticed two plain white panels below upper deck doors. Are these the escape slide hatches ? If so, does it mean the slides were used at some point, and they replaced the hatches with plain white ones ?

Does anyone know what the story is with those? Is it something that is generally replaced under normal circumstances?

V/F

My guess is something was found and required them to be replaced/repaired. Also with MAH planning removing these birds from mainline service with the A350's they may have deemed it uneconomical to paint them to match the current livery when they will probably be painted in a livery for their charter airline if they are still planning on doing this.

Just a guess on my part.

Brett

They are white probably because they have been overhaulled and painted white. There is no issue with doing this just that it reflects on the livery badly. I am an engineer on the A380, not for MAS, we routinely remove slides for overhaul. They are staggered early as everything has a life. So rather than all the slides becoming time expired at the same time they are rotated through.

As it’s a pressurised cylinder it requires workshop overhaul to static pressure check. They will also inflate slides as part of a reliability program and for any problems to be identified and fixed on other units.

Hope this clarifies.

ba9216c wrote:

They are white probably because they have been overhaulled and painted white. There is no issue with doing this just that it reflects on the livery badly. I am an engineer on the A380, not for MAS, we routinely remove slides for overhaul. They are staggered early as everything has a life. So rather than all the slides becoming time expired at the same time they are rotated through.

As it’s a pressurised cylinder it requires workshop overhaul to static pressure check. They will also inflate slides as part of a reliability program and for any problems to be identified and fixed on other units.

Hope this clarifies.

Very well, thanks a lot, it is very interesting!

SheikhDjibouti wrote:

Sometimes a good clean-up can pay for itself in fuel saved.
Back in the days of the King's Cup Air Race, you would see competitors waxing their aircraft to an immaculate sheen, in the hope it would gain them ½kt extra airspeed which might make all the difference. Same philosophy; different end product.

redflyer wrote:

I keep my little Piper Cherokee in pristine condition for that very reason. I may fly at an eye-watering speed of only 120 kt, but I figure even my little bug smasher can benefit from a clean and obstruction free surface.

There is nothing quite like making a valid point on these boards, and then seeing it disappear into a black-hole. It's good to know at least one person read my post and understood the hyper complicated technical aspect of cleaning the bugs off the windscreen. So thank you.
Seriously, I cannot quantify the economic benefits of a clean up, but if works for you at 120kts, it must be 16x more effective for an A380 flying at 480kts. Surely that is worth something.