Wed, Jul 15, 2009
Narrowly Avoided A Disaster Down Under
Officials say it was
the closest thing Australia has had to a major air catastrophe, and
after 4 months of silence, the pilot has finally told his story to
the Australia Herald Sun...
The A340 was fully loaded with 257 passengers and 18 crew on
board. As it approached the end of the runway of Melbourne Airport
on its takeoff roll, the pilot knew they were not fast enough to
provide the required lift. He pushed the engines to 'Take Off And
Go-Around' power and rotated, bouncing the tail of the Airbus three
times off the pavement and hitting the REIL lights at the end of
the runway as the airplane finally became airborne. After 30
minutes dumping fuel over Port Phillip Bay, they returned to
Melbourne and landed safely, but the Emirates pilot was badly
shaken.
The pilot said he still doesn't know exactly how he managed to
get the Airbus in the air. "I . . . sort of reacted on instinct,"
he told the Herald Sun. "I had a feeling that (something) wasn't
working, but I couldn't find out what was wrong. I knew I couldn't
stop. At that point I knew we just had to go. And we got it off the
ground, miraculously."
Safety investigators found that the First Officer was flying the
plane when the Captain called "Rotate". When it failed to fly, he
called "Rotate" again, which caused the first tail strike. It was
then that he pushed the plane to Take Off and Go-Around power and
hit the tail again as they became airborne. Once off the ground,
they realized that the calculated departure weight was 100 tons
lighter than the actual weight of the airplane. While the crew is
not responsible for entering the takeoff weight, they are
responsible for checking that it is correct. The typo meant
incorrect calculations of takeoff power and requisite speeds.
File Photo
According to the Herald Sun, the pilot has left Dubai with his
family and returned to Europe, where he is from. He reportedly had
slept only 3 1/2 hours in the 24 before he was scheduled to fly,
and both he and the co-pilot were handed prepared letters of
resignation when they returned to Dubai after the incident. There
were four pilots on board the aircraft, including two relief
pilots, due to the 14 1/2 hour length of the flight from Melbourne
to Dubai.
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