In November 2007, an Etihad flight crew was given the responsibility of moving their still unfinished aircraft out of the hangar to the aircraft run-up area. We're really talking "unfinished". The 'plane was an empty shell... no seats, no carpet, no overhead lockers, no entertainment system, no catering equipment, nothing. Just a very light empty aluminium tube with wings, a cockpit, a tail and a few engines.
The Airbus supervisor, in an oversight that I suspect will never be repeated, decided he didn't need to accompany or supervise his Arab friends, so they were left to figure it out on their own.
For reasons I'm not sure anyone will fully understand, the Etihad crew took all four engines to takeoff power. Maybe boys were just being boys, or maybe the gene pool needs thinning a little (or both), because they had no clue just how light of an empty Airbus really is. No chocks were set (not that it would have mattered at that power setting), and the brakes weren't going to hold the 'plane back at full power.
The takeoff warning horn was blaring away in the cockpit because the computers thought they were trying to takeoff but it had not yet been fully configured. Somehow, it didn't occur to these guys to simply throttle back... or maybe that wouldn't have been as much fun. They decided instead, in what can only be described as a stroke of pure genius, to pull the 'Ground Sense' circuit breaker to silence the alarms.
Big mistake! All they did was fool the aircraft's computers into thinking they were in the air. As soon as they did that, the computers automatically released all the brakes and set the A340-600 rocketing forward. The poor bastards had no idea that this is a Safety feature so that pilots can't land with the brakes on.
The result is pictured. [*sigh*].
4 comments:
Ouch. Do you fly?
This is a very sad story. I almost feel bad for them, but then again somebody important and careless trusted them with this expensive equipment so I'm feeling less bad for the lot of them by the second.
oops.
lolol! Remember rule number one, Chester? People really ARE fucked! Herein lies evidence of our theory. My god, what a terrible shame tho ... and an expensive mistake I'm sure.
I mean, look at the poor plane - it's head fell off. That can't be good for anyone. Or anything.
Do you know if the supervisor and all the ground staff got the sack? I wonder what the repercussions were.
Post a Comment