Brand spanking new Airbus 340-600
Posted: Wed Aug 20, 2008 5:24 pm
The brand spanking new Airbus 340-600, the largest passenger airplane
ever built, sat in its hangar inToulouse, France without a single hour of
airtime. Enter the Arab flight crew of Abu Dhabi Aircraft Technologies
(ADAT) to conduct pre-delivery tests on the ground, such as engine
runups, prior to delivery to Etihad Airways in Abu Dhabi.
The ADAT crew taxied the A340-600 to the run-up area. Then they took all
four engines to takeoff power with a virtually empty aircraft. Not
having read the run-up manuals, they had no clue just how light an empty
A340-600 really is.
The takeoff warning horn was blaring away in the cockpit because they
had all 4 engines at full power. The aircraft computers thought they were
trying to takeoff but it had not been configured properly (flaps/slats, etc.)
Then one of the ADAT crew decided to pull the circuit breaker on the
Ground Proximity Sensor to silence the alarm. This fools the aircraft into
thinking it is in the air. The computers automatically released all the
brakes and set the aircraft rocketing forward. The ADAT crew had no idea
that this is a safety feature so that pilots can't land with the brakes
on.
Not one member of the seven-man Arab crew was smart enough to throttle
back the engines from their max power setting, so the $200 million brand-new
aircraft crashed into a blast barrier, totaling it. The extent of
injuries to the crew is unknown, for there has been a news blackout in the major
media in France and elsewhere. Coverage of the story was deemed
insulting to Moslem Arabs. Finally, the photos are starting to leak out. Airbus
$200 million aircraft meets retaining wall and the wall wins....
ever built, sat in its hangar inToulouse, France without a single hour of
airtime. Enter the Arab flight crew of Abu Dhabi Aircraft Technologies
(ADAT) to conduct pre-delivery tests on the ground, such as engine
runups, prior to delivery to Etihad Airways in Abu Dhabi.
The ADAT crew taxied the A340-600 to the run-up area. Then they took all
four engines to takeoff power with a virtually empty aircraft. Not
having read the run-up manuals, they had no clue just how light an empty
A340-600 really is.
The takeoff warning horn was blaring away in the cockpit because they
had all 4 engines at full power. The aircraft computers thought they were
trying to takeoff but it had not been configured properly (flaps/slats, etc.)
Then one of the ADAT crew decided to pull the circuit breaker on the
Ground Proximity Sensor to silence the alarm. This fools the aircraft into
thinking it is in the air. The computers automatically released all the
brakes and set the aircraft rocketing forward. The ADAT crew had no idea
that this is a safety feature so that pilots can't land with the brakes
on.
Not one member of the seven-man Arab crew was smart enough to throttle
back the engines from their max power setting, so the $200 million brand-new
aircraft crashed into a blast barrier, totaling it. The extent of
injuries to the crew is unknown, for there has been a news blackout in the major
media in France and elsewhere. Coverage of the story was deemed
insulting to Moslem Arabs. Finally, the photos are starting to leak out. Airbus
$200 million aircraft meets retaining wall and the wall wins....
