This afternoon at about 15:50 whilst sitting at my computer
involved in the railway preservation internet war I heard a jet
engine roaring. The cloud base was at approx 2000 ft over Table
View with light drizzle. I thought to myself why is Mike Beechy
Head flying practice runs for the Overberg Airshow in this weather
(the initial sound was something like one of his aircraft).
I ran to my trusted ATC scanner and switched on and the first
thing I heard was the tower talking to Charlie Victor the ground
crew. He said get that rubble off the runway immediately. We have
an emergency. The aircraft has to return. He then spoke to
Nationwide who said to him we have an emergency. We have lost
hydraulics and partial disintegration of our right engine. The
traffic controller said it is not part disintegration. The whole
engine is lying on the runway.
At this time he was vectored to fly to Romeo India Victor (Robben Island) and he maintained 3000 ft on one engine. The air traffic controller when asked by the pilot what they had seen said that on take off he first saw black smoke which turned into grey smoke and then the motor exploded and disintegrated and parted from the aircraft.
This happened just short of the cross runway 16/34 which is about 70% of total runway length. There was no way that the pilot could have stopped the aircraft before the end of the runway but they obviously had enough speed at that stage for the take off. The aircrew were very calm and were obviously going through all their emergency procedures.
The air traffic controllers on tower were frantically hurrying on Charlie Victor to clear the large parts off the runway so that the aircraft could return.
All other aircraft on approach to Cape Town were immediately placed into emergency hold and there was a lot of banter going on as to how much fuel each of them had and what their reserves were. In the end five aircraft were diverted to George and three to Port Elizabeth.
At about 16:10 Charlie Victor indicated that the runway was clear for an emergency landing and the Nationwide flight was brought in from around Cape Point to runway 01 on a gradual descent on ILS as the cloud base was very low. They made a perfect approach and a very good landing without brakes. Fortunately the gear could not be lifted on take off so hydraulics were not required to get them down.
After the plane came to a standstill there was a lot of congratulations from other pilots who were in their aircraft on the apron awaiting take off. The Nationwide aircraft was parked on the cross runway 34 out of the way of the main runway 01/19. Passengers were disembarked in the normal fashion as the steps were driven out to that area and so were the buses.
The runway was reopened at 16:58 after poor old Charlie Victor had to remove all small particles that had fallen on the runway in case they got sucked into jet engines and there had been hydraulic and fuel spill on the
runway.
After the Airbus A340 incident last week and this situation
today it becomes all the more clear that Cape Town needs a second ILS main runway. If that had been the case no flights would have been diverted in either incident. Billions are being spent on the passenger boarding side but nothing on operating.
As for the reason for the Nationwide separation incident there are many possibilities.
Debris could have been sucked into the fans causing fan separation, imbalance and ultimate explosion. This debris could have been either sucked off the runway or could even have been a large bird. The fan could have broken and caused an imbalance resulting in the explosion. The bearings could have seized on the fan.
It does not necessarily mean bad maintenance although that is a possibility. The controlling body of air safety sent a team from Johannesburg to Cape Town today and they arrived at about 19:30 to fully investigate this incident.
From what I heard on the radio everybody acted in an extremely efficient manner. The aircrew, the air traffic control, the emergency services and the ground handling crews really showed that this type of emergency is handled incredibly well when it happens. Good for them.
Well done guys, hats off on a fantastic job on saving all those souls. I salute you!!
:D :D
Cape Town International desperately need a paralel runway 19/01. Untill such time the place is a ticking time-bomb. 