Did you know that...

.. American Airlines saved $40,000 in 1987 by eliminating one single olive from each salad served in first-class?

And that...

.. stewardesses is the longest word typed with only the left hand?

"Airplanes and airports have my favourite kind of food service, my favourite kinds of entertainment, my favourite graphics and colours, the best service checks, the best views, the best employees and the best optimism."

Andy Warhol, 1977

Incident of the week #22

Sometimes something really mysterious happens during cruising altitude...

This happened this weed to a TAM Airbus A320 flight from Rio de Janeiro to Belem (Brazil). One (or more) of the 126 passengers seemed to be bored and decided to create a small fire on both (forward and aft) lavatories from the A320 mid flight. And no one really knows what really happened or who caused it. Fact is that while cruising at 35,000 feet, the crew received a fire indication and an emergency descend was immediately made, diverting the aircraft to Brasilia (Brazil). Mistakenly, the communication between cabin and cockpit crew was opened and, as a consequence, the passengers heard everything and a bit of panic was installed. The indication followed an actual fire, that cabin crew immediately took control and were able to fight. Traces of flammable liquid and burnt paper were found on both toilets. An investigation has now been open.

rain rain go away!

Incident of the week #21

Sometimes an aircraft is on final approach, preparing itself to land when something goes wrong.

This happened this week to a Dana Air MD-83 flight from Abuja to Lagos (Nigeria). The flight went smoothly but on final approach to Lagos the flight crew reported both engines had failed and they were fighting to control the aircraft. Possible reason for the double engine failure are yet unknown (bird strike seems unlikely). Due to the low safety record from various airlines based in Afrika, the airline was suspended and no Dana Air flights are currently being operated. Nevertheless, the airline stated that the aircraft last A-Check was completed on May 30th 2012, with the next C-Check required until September 2012. Also, the aircraft had performed several flights the days before, reporting no anomalies. Both black boxes were recovered from the debris and are now being analysed.

Fact is that the the US captain (who had over 18,000 total flying hours and had just moved from Florida, being at the airline only since 3 months) and the indian first officer (who had little over 1,000 total hours of flying experience) lost control after lossing its both engines while on final approach to Lagos. The secondhand aircraft then collided with a power line about 2 km (1.4 miles) from the runway, plunging into a built area. In result, a number of residential houses around the crash site were destroyed and all 147 passengers and 6 crew on board perished, as well as 16 people on ground, who were amongst a crowded Lagos suburb.

Was AF Captain with a woman when flight 447 was in trouble?

In the final chaotic moments before Air France flight 447 crashed into the Atlantic Ocean in 2009, it took the captain of the aircraft, who was on a scheduled break, more than a minute to return to the cockpit, despite his two co-pilots’ frantic calls for help, black box recordings showed.

Although it was never revealed what delayed Capt. Marc D., two independent sources told ABC News that the 58-year-old veteran Air France pilot was traveling socially with an off-duty Air France flight attendant named Veronique G..

Jean-Paul Troadec, the director of BEA, the French authority conducting the investigation into the Flight 447 crash, told ABC News that G. was not part of their investigation because the agency was “not interested” in the “private life of the pilot.” Troadec added that he did not think the captains alleged relations with G. aboard the plane would have played a role in the accident.

Air France 447 was on an overnight trip from Rio de Janiero to Paris on May 31, 2009 when it vanished. The plane crashed into the Atlantic Ocean in the early morning hours of June 1, 2009.

Three years after the accident, a final report has now finally been released, explaining what happened that night at 38,000 feet. Black box tapes recovered from the wreckage two years after the crash, in April 2011, revealed that Capt. D. left the cockpit for a scheduled nap about four hours into the flight, around the same time Flight 447 was about to enter a severe thunderstorm which other flights had avoided.

Once in the storm, the plane’s pitot tube, a critical piece of equipment that tells the pilot the aircraft’s air speed, failed, likely from ice crystals forming on it, according to BEA officials who inspected the wreckage. When the pitot tube fails, the Airbus A330′s automatic pilot system disengages, shifting control back to the pilot.

According to the tapes, First Officer Cedric B., a 32-year-old pilot who had fewer than 5,000 flight hours under his belt, was at the controls but had never been in this situation before at high altitude. He made the fatal mistake of pulling the plane’s nose up, which caused it to go into a deep stall.

Within seconds, the plane was plummeting about 120 miles an hour in the dark, belly first, with the nose slightly elevated.

“It seems that the pilots did not understand the situation and they were not aware that they had stalled,” Troadec said.

The co-pilots asked where the captain was and called for help several times before Captain D. returned to the cockpit, the black box tapes showed. When Captain D. burst in, he found a scene of utter confusion.

“What’s happening?” D. was heard saying on the black box recordings.

“I don’t know what’s happening,” one of the co-pilots replied.

“I have a problem…I have no more displays,” D. said.

They never regained control of the plane, and in the confusion, co-pilot Cedric B. thought his instruments were wrong. He was so befuddled that he was heard asking, “Am I going down now?”

All 228 passengers and crew aboard Air France flight 447 were killed.

Courtesy of the fabulous flight deck #4

The before naked check list.... keep on dreaming captain!

Historical screw-ups #2

On November 3, 1973, a National Airlines DC-10 aircraft was operating as a scheduled passenger flight between Miami and San Francisco with intermediate stops at New Orleans, Houston and Las Vegas.

At about 4:40 p.m., while the aircraft was cruising at 39,000 feet (12,000 m) 65 miles southwest of Albuquerque, the No. 3 engine fan assembly disintegrated in an uncountained failure. Its fragments penetrated the fuselage, the Nos. 1 and 2 engine nacelles (which contain those engines), and the right wing area. The resultant damage caused decompression of the aircraft cabin and the loss of certain electrical and hydraulic systems.

The flight crew initiated an emergency descent, and the aircraft was landed safely at Albuquerque International Airport 19 minutes after the engine failed. The 115 passengers and 12 crew members exited the aircraft by using the evacuation slides. As a result of the accident, one passenger died and 24 persons were treated for smoke inhalation, ear problems, and minor abrasions. The plane was repaired and was later flown by Pan Am.

One passenger, G.F. Gardner of Beaumont, Texas, was partially sucked into an opening left when a cabin window failed, after it too was struck by engine fragments. He was temporarily retained in that position by his seatbelt. "Efforts to pull the passenger back into the airplane by another passenger were unsuccessful, and the occupant of seat 17H was forced entirely through the cabin window." The New Mexico State Police and local organizations searched extensively for the missing passenger. A computer analysis was made of the possible falling trajectories, which narrowed the search pattern. However, the search effort was unsuccessful, and the body of the passenger was not recovered until two years later, when a crew constructing tracks for the Very Large Array radio telescope came upon his skeletal remains. So keeping your seatbelts buckled on during a flight, really can save your life, keep that in mind next time you fly!

How does an aircraft actually fly?

An aircraft can only take off if its engines provide enough forward thrust to cause an adequate volume of air to flow over its wings at a sufficient rate. The air flow separates when it comes up against the leading edges of the wings. As the wing has a cambered surface and the separated air molecules tend to join up again once they reach the end of the aerofoil, the air on the upper side of the wing flows faster than that beneath. This creates vacuum which provides the aircraft with lift. How fast the air has to flow over the wings depends, among other things, on the weight of the aircraft and the size of the aerofoil.

Incident of the week #20

Sometimes while you´re peacefully flying through the skies, something wrong happens and your peaceful flight turns up into a nightmare: oxygen masks deploy and the cabin catches on fire mid flight.

This happened this week to an OLT Espress Airbus A320, flying from Warsaw (Poland) to Hurghada (Egypt). The aircraft was normally flying at 37000 feet with 147 passengers and 8 crew on board when a slow decompression happened for some yet unknown reason. In the cockpit, among others, the SYS ON light on the overhead panel lighted up and masks where deployed all around the cabin. The flight crew immediately started an emergency descent towards Sofia (Bulgaria). But during the descent something else really bad happened. One thing that no crew wants to have on board is fire, and exactly a fire started up during the descent. So now, the crew was dealing with TWO big problems: decompression and fire. 

The flight crew did an amazing job and was able to land the aircraft in only 12 minutes (mind you, they were flying over FL370!). While that, cabin crew were trying to extinguish the fire that was now flaming out from the carpet and ceiling with their fire extinguishers.

One thing about oxygen generators is that they become extremely hot when deployed. Probably they were not stowed correctly, or some mechanical failure just happened, which got the generator producing some sparks and visible flames causing the carpet to catch fire. The fire was, thanks to a great cabin crew intervention, quickly extinguished. After landing and coming to a stop in the runway, the aircraft was successfully evacuated and no injuries occurred. 

Kudos to the crew, really nice job done!