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Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Typo Caused Airbus Plane Tail-Strike During Takeoff in Australia [Planes]

Currently, there's a typo in a trending topic on Twitter, and it's doing my head in, though at least it won't be responsible for a plane tail-strike like the one that occurred at Melbourne Airport in Australia earlier this year.

The typo has just been discovered as the reason why the United Arab Emirates A340-541 Airbus had problems taking off, with a report claiming:

"During the reduced thrust takeoff, the aircraft's tail made contact with the runway surface, but the aircraft did not begin to climb. The captain commanded and selected take-off and go-around engine thrust and the aircraft commenced a climb. After jettisoning fuel to reduce the landing weight, the flight crew returned the aircraft to Melbourne for landing."

Apparently, the plane's first officer recorded the weight into the flight system as 262.9 tons, when in actual fact it was 362.9 ton. Quite a difference, you'll agree. While there were no injuries to the 257 passengers, 14 cabin crew and four flight crew, two of the crew resigned afterwards, presumably from the shame of watching the tail of the aircraft bounce against the runway three times. [ATSB report via Ieee Spectrum]


Send an email to Kat Hannaford, the author of this post, at xunaansbeq@tvmzbqb.pbz

moc.odomzig@drofannahk.

Wow, crisis averted. Props to crew for keeping their cool, though one might point out mishap was preventable. Which could be, I suppose, why two of them resigned after the incident.

Posted via web from Firesaw on posterous

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